As you see in title google play wants me add privacy policy inside my app when he create his account
I can build simple site but I don not know what requirement to write
I want to write a formal privacy policy
Go to blogger site google free blog site.
Go to privacy policy maker site choose the services your app uses it will generate
privacy policy for you.
Copy the policy and add to blogger site and get the link.
Add the link to your app and play console account.
I've made a app privacy policy on the website, but do I need to create one in the app also ?
From Google developer support documents:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/10144311
Post a privacy policy in both the designated field in the Play Console
and within the app itself.
Do I need to create a page in the app dedicated for the privacy policy or should I make only a reference/link in the app to the policy page on the website ?
You can just make a reference/link in the app to the policy page on the website. Google will not ban your application for that.
You can add the policy directly in the app but you may need a public-accessible link if you'd like to add it on the app store listing as well:
Screenshot from Google Play Store Store Listing page:
I added a privacy policy in the app and on the website, just to be sure. The app was accepted from the first try.
Even if google doesn't punish developers for not publishing privacy policies within the apps, they clearly state that you should do it.
As #cat15ets said, I want to reconfirm that Google/Android did not removed the App from the PlayStore and even did not send any notice or warning for doing that.
I further assumed, that should be an OPTIONAL requirement.
My app update has been rejected and wasn't published due to a policy violation.
The reason is for some security reasons we've blacklisted certain countries and their IPs from our network. Due to that Google Play developer were not able to access the privacy policy URL in the store listing.
Email from google regarding rejection:
Publishing status: Rejected
After review, your app has been rejected and wasn't published due to a policy violation. If you submitted an update, the previous version of your app is still available on Google Play. However, your app may be subject to removal if you do not resolve the issue outlined below by October 1, 2019.
Reasons of violation
Issue: Violation of Families Policy Requirements
Apps that contain elements that appeal to children must comply with all Families Policy Requirements. We found the following issue(s) with your app:
Eligibility Issue
Privacy policy
You must provide a link to your app's privacy policy on your app's store listing page. This link must be maintained at all times while the app is available on Google Play, and it must link to a privacy policy that, among other things, accurately describes your app’s data collection and use. Please provide a link to a valid privacy policy in your app's store listing page in the Play Console. For more details, please refer to the Privacy policy section (#6) of the Families Policy Requirements.
What I did
I contacted Google via support email [googleplay-developer-support#google.com] two days [actually asked on Saturday (21/09/19)] back asking them to kindly share their location where they’re trying to access our privacy policy URL so that we can add it to our white-list.
They provided me the 48 hours time they will respond. But Google is not responding to my emails.
What should I do next?
Thanks.
As of February 2021, the Google Play Console privacy policy link section is moved to another page.
Steps By Steps Guide To Access Privacy Policy Link Section:
Go to Google Play Console.
On left side bar, select App content under Policy section.
On App content page, select Manage under Privacy policy section.
On Privacy Policy page, add your app privacy policy url in the input box and click Save button.
Done!
Understand the following points:
1. Privacy policy URL should be globally accessible.
2. If you're having security concerns with your URL to make it globally accessible then,
make the Privacy Policy page accessible for all and apply the location-based security to the rest of the website.
You can either edit the security privacy for privacy page or use blogger or something similar. Either way, privacy policy URL should be globally accessible. For more, you can contact security experts.
3. If you're excepting Google to respond with their location then you're just wrong. Forget about it.
I had faced a similar situation. My privacy policy URL was broken. So after editing the privacy policy URL from "Policy status" which can be accessible from the left menu section under the "Policy" Section at the bottom of the left menu.
To send to review you have to select "Publishing overview" from the left menu and you can see your changes in the review. And you can send the app for review
For those having trouble adding the privacy policy link follow these steps:
Add a privacy policy
1 Sign in to your Play Console.
2 Select an app.
3 Select Store presence > App content.
4 Under "Privacy Policy," click Start or Manage.
This is how it is described here, in the official documentation.
We experienced this problem with 2 apps:
First App: I received a message saying that my update was rejected because of the violation on the Family program alleging that it was crashing or giving an error (pretty generic message without any detail at all), I enter in contact on the support form and they send an email asking for me to read the terms and to update my APK number and submit again, I read the terms, I already had complied with everything so I replied saying that, we already comply with everyhting and we tested the APK and OBB installation and game play, all good, please send more details, they replied copying and pasting the same message, I once more insisted and asked for them to explain the problem, they replied asking for update my APK version and submit again, I said this will solve no crashes, please explain what is the problem and the support called Sara highlighted in the message asking to update the APK version, kind of talking with a machine that do not responded what I asked, but I updated my APK version, submitted again and... Worked. Why? For some reason they will not explain, my guess is they just marked my APK as dirty as an attempt to remove apps that the developers don't update, there's no other logical thing I can think off.
Second App: This one I didn't had a happy end as the previous one, I tried the technique of updating the APK version 6 times, none worked, I asked help on the form (many times), they just copy and paste the message about read the Terms, I started to insist for some details, provided them with many proves that my APK+OBB files sent to Google Play are working fine, and asked for any clue about this "problem", like a device model and Android Version that they experienced it (isn't the minimum they suppose to provide us?) but after requesting this many times, for the first time the support guy called Arthur didn't copied and pasted and finally wrote an email, his answer was:
Hi Developer,
Thanks again for contacting the Google Play Team.
As much as I'd like to help, due to policy, I’m not able to provide any more information or a better answer to your question. In our previous email, I made sure to include all the information available to me.
If you have a different question about Google Play policies, please let me know.
Regards,
Arthur
The Google Play Team
It means, he has no information at all about what is the problem, I've trying to solve this for 2 months, our flagship game is threatened of been removed from the store and they can't even explain why, the support team can just copy and paste a generic message without any understanding of our problem and we have no other channel to ask for help.
I'm really disappointed with Google for such poor support for developers.
Well, why I told this long story? To tell you that the person on the support, when them reply to you probably will write a generic message and this will not be someone who actually tested your app, and this person has no idea how to help you because he is not technical and has no way of forwarding you to someone else.
We are in the same boat.
It was about permission, you should enter a URL of your Plicoy privacy, you should mention permission used in the app and in which condition this permission are used.
Where to put the Policy privacy URL?
Open the Google Play Console, select the app concerned, under Store presence select Store Listing and you can find Privacy Policy at the bottom of the page.
please go to your google console -> select your App -> in the left side bar under policy(at the bottom) -> click on App content -> then click on privacy policy and enter your url. Thanks
In my case the problem was that the hosting service didn't support https
Google does not complain if you add a http link in privacy policy , but they will reject it
This is my first time to upload apk on play store. Firstly, I am getting error of Privacy policy that I have use camera in my app. Later on I searched on google I got some some suggestion later on again I creating signed apk and when I going to upload apk its showing this error.
Store listing
1 task to complete before you rollout
Your app has an apk with version code 1 that requests the following permission(s): android.permission.CAMERA. Apps using these permissions in an APK are required to have a privacy policy set.
Is it possible to upload apk without upload url of Privacy policy. I used camera in my app?
Is it possible to upload apk without upload url of Privacy policy.
NO, You must Add URL on Privacy Section. It's Google's Policy.
You can host your privacy policy with any publicly accessible URL .
Read official guideline about Privacy Policy Guidance
Since February 2017 Google enforces a strict privacy policy
requirement on apps requesting sensitive permissions and user data.
There are quite a few places in the Google Play Store documentation
that points out that requirement.
What information do you share?
In your policy, you should disclose the circumstances when you share
information. For example, you may share information with third parties
as part of the service (like a restaurant reservation Action), with
other users (like a social network or forum), with marketing partners,
or with service providers that assist with your service (like hosting
companies or technology platforms).
Since you are using user's camera, google will allow you to upload apps only if you are sure you are not abusing the access to the camera.
In Play console, go to Store Presence > Store Listing > Find Privacy policy at the end of the page.
Then place the url of the page of your privacy policy and you are good to go.
No it is not possible to upload apk without upload url of Privacy policy
There is small service, can be used for fast generation of Privacy Policy in simple cases.
Google Play has notified me to publish a Privacy Policy for my app. I have created a website to host this information. I am planning to update the website link from the developer console shortly.
As per the new policy, Google is asking that we should also update our app to have a link to the privacy policy. Unfortunately I cannot do this anymore as I lost my keystore in a hard-disk crash. Is this step optional? Will Google Play allow my app to be listed with just a privacy policy website link in the Store listing, without the app itself not having the privacy policy details?
Thanks
Balaji
1) You absolutely need your privacy policy on the Play Store page PLUS within the app
This is what Google says:
If your app requests user data or makes sensitive permissions requests
such as Phone, Accounts, Contacts, Camera, or Microphone, you'll need
to add a valid privacy policy in two places: your app's Store Listing
page (instructions below) and within your app.
I'd also like to add some more insight why that is the case. If you are into privacy law theory, then I suggest you read this pdf by a Pan-European privacy body, otherwise I just suggest to read the summary here:
The essential scope of information about data processing 1) must be
available to the users before app installation, via the app store.
Secondly, the relevant information about the data processing 2) must
also be accessible from within the app, after installation.
You can see - in theory - this is absolutely requested and required and you should strive to get that done. Hope this helps. p.s. I work for a startup that helps with privacy policies. (link)