Develop Reference

Do I need to create a specific privacy policy for my app or can I just use a random one for approval for publishing in the android play store?

I did not know what to link as my privacy policy page for my app submission for the android play store and so I looked on the internet for answers and apparently I can use any random privacy policy page and my app can still be approved. This is the page that I linked as my privacy policy page, I'm not even sure if its going to get approved so can someone tell me if this is an acceptable privacy policy page or will it get rejected? If it is not then can someone link me something that will work for any type of app.

Unlikely that Google will approve any apps without a specific Privacy Policy.
To get the app approved:
Have a descriptive Privacy Policy that discloses your collection and use of images from users
Complete the Data Safety form to match your Privacy Policy disclosures
If you do not collect any data (including through use of third-party SDKs), simply state so in a Privacy Policy.

Do you need a privacy policy and terms/conditions for your android app?

My app's operates on a simple couple of button clicks. However, as I am gearing up to release it, I couldn't help but notice nearly all the apps have at least a privacy policy and terms/conditions on there page. Is it legally necessary to have both? Or is it just good practice?

You don't need terms/conditions. Privacy policy are usually required, but that is depending on where you're going to release your app. For example in Europe and California you are required to have a certain type of privacy policy, that include certain specific elements.
"A Terms and Conditions is not required and it’s not mandatory by law. Unlike Privacy Policies, which are required by laws such as the GDPR, CalOPPA and many others, there’s no law or regulation on Terms and Conditions."
- https://www.termsfeed.com/blog/sample-terms-and-conditions-template/#Download_Terms_and_Conditions_Template
After some research I found that Shopify had decent templates: https://www.shopify.com/tools/policy-generator

If you plan to publish an app Google requires you to have privacy policy that you will link to the app so consumers see the privacy policy if they want to. You won't be able to publish without that providing a working link. The terms and conditions is not required by Google.

Crash Reporting Tools Privacy Concerns [duplicate]

I am about to submit an app to the Apple AppStore built in Swift that uses Crashlytics to capture crash information. As users of Crashlytics know, some information about usage, duration, crashes, etc. is captured and stored on the Crashlytics servers. My application does not ask for, store or attempt to capture any user data.
My question is about the privacy policy for my application. Since I don't capture any user data, I want to state that in my privacy policy but I'm not sure that's factual since I am using Crashlytics. Any feedback on people that have used Crashlytics in their app and have an actual privacy policy?
Thanks
--Vinny

Quick answer: yes, you need that privacy policy. There are ways to get it done fast, too.
Longer answer:
Third parties (here Crashlytics)
When dealing with a third party service like this, often a quick look into their legal documents will help (for Crashlytics in this case as described in your question).
(...) At all times during the term of this Agreement, Developer shall
maintain a privacy policy (a) that is readily accessible to users from
its website or within its online service (as applicable), (b) that
fully and accurately discloses to its users what information is
collected about its users and (c) that states that such information is
disclosed to and processed by third party providers like Crashlytics
in the manner contemplated by the Services, including, without
limitation, disclosure of the use of technology to track users’
activity and otherwise collect information from users. (...)
And
Developer shall at all times comply with all applicable laws, rules
and regulations relating to data collection, privacy and security,
including, without limitation, the Children’s Online Privacy
Protection Act (“COPPA”). Crashlytics may, at its sole discretion from
time to time during the Term of this Agreement, audit Developer Data
to verify compliance.
Crashlytics is actually being unusually vocal about this topic.
The App Store
At the time of writing (and since iOS8) Apple requires privacy policies for 5 categories:
Kids Category, HomeKit, HealthKit, Apple Pay, and Keyboard Extentions. Also they require privacy policies for user registrations (more). I can't tell if any of the above for your app is true. Apple still says in their App Store Review Guidelines that you need to be compliant with all applicable laws. This brings us to the third and most important reason.
Privacy related regulations
All of the above is just there because of global privacy regulations, these companies would most likely not care otherwise. As soon as you work with User data you are mostly under an obligation to disclose these facts. It's personal data like names, addresses or the tracking of user behaviour. It's been written at length why analytics services need privacy policies. All of it is more important as soon as you share data and use third party services for it. Mostly the disclosure or some kind of consent is the condition for it's compliant usage.
If you are interested in reading more about the matter in the context of mobile apps I'd suggest any of these documents:
ICO UK
Ireland
USA/California
Canada
Australia
Hope this helps.
(For proper disclosure: I do some work for iubenda, a tool that helps creating privacy policies for apps and websites)

Vinny, I think it's not mandatory (I've seen apps using Crashlytics wihtout a privacy policy), but it's recommended to have transparency in the communications with your users.
Crashlytics already has a privacy policy so you can just use that policy and add a statement informing that you are not collecting any sensitive information from the user, such as email or phone number.

Privacy policy link for Google Play

I am having trouble here, this is my first app and there is so much involved, I did not think it was this hard, currently I am stuck on adding a link to my app's PRIVACY POLICY my app is very simple.
It does not share any data but I do use Google Analytics, one more thing is that I do not have a website, so supposedly I had the privacy policy link where would I put it apart from a site I own?
Thanks.

website hosting
checkout GitHub's GitHub Pages services. they host a simple static website for you for free! basic instructions:
create a public repository on GitHub named [username].github.io (replace "[username]")
commit an index.html file to the root of the repo.
you can see your site online at http://[username].github.io/.
privacy policy
basic privacy policy template here....it'll give you a template that you can simply copy and paste and modify to fit your needs. unlike most other places that are after your money and/or personal information!!! 😠😠😠

This is
a simple guide from google itself. you can host your site in google sites no need to host github sites

Simplest steps to resolve Google Play Console privacy policy link issue:
Create your own app privacy policy.
After created, hosted in any website hosting (In my case, I hosted in GitHub Pages) and copy the privacy policy url.
Pasted the privacy policy url in the Google Play Console Privacy Policy section.
Save and wait for review.
Done!

You might not need one. You could inform the user in-app that you're using Analytics. Otherwise, you can check out free sites like Google Sites to easily create a web-page with its own URL that you can link to.

My app doesn't share or collect any data, but I need to complete data safety form and part of it is a link to privacy policy.
Privacy Policies are very important legal agreements. Make absolutely sure you are not using any 3rd party solutions that might be tracking your users unwittingly. Adding analytics or user login to your app usually requires a more comprehensive privacy policy.
If your app really doesn't collect data remotely or use third party services that do, then that makes your privacy policy very simple. In that case, I suggest stating the following:
Your app doesn't track users
Your app doesn't collect data; or that data is stored securely on the user's device and stays private
Data is not shared with your company or any third parties without permission (since you might want to collect user feedback like bug reports with the user's explicit permission)
You can easily write your own privacy policy, but here's a minimal template for the bullet points above:
app_name_or_legal_entity's commitment to privacy is simple: We don't track you! We don't collect or transmit your data; instead, information you submit in our app is stored privately and securely on your device. Your information won't ever be shared with us or any third party without your explicit permission.
Keep in mind that this is subjective, but I suggest keeping it short and adding a section where you explain why your business doesn't collect user data. It could be as simple as stating something like "We believe privacy is a human right."

I had massive problems with my privacy policy getting rejected, no matter what I wrote in it. But in the end it turned out that there was nothing wrong with the actual contents of my policy, the problem was instead that I hosted it on my web page using a client-rendered Vue application. I guess that this prevented Google's system from properly crawling the URL that I supplied to them. When pasted the same privacy policy in a Google Docs and used the "Publish to Web" option in order to get a URL, it got approved right away.
A pity that the error message wasn't more clear on that.

There are many reasons why you'd want a privacy policy, one is the fact that you are using Google Analytics. Here is what the Google Analytics terms of use say under "7. Privacy":
You will have and abide by an appropriate Privacy Policy and will
comply with all applicable laws, policies, and regulations relating to
the collection of information from Visitors. You must post a Privacy
Policy and that Privacy Policy must provide notice of Your use of
cookies that are used to collect data. You must disclose the use of
Google Analytics, and how it collects and processes data. (...)
Sure, you can trick your way around the requirement, but that doesn't mean the problem goes away. You can find a lot of information around the web about how to write a privacy policy for apps and more, the advice I'd give depends on a lot of factors.
How to get your privacy policy done:
Proper disclosure to start this section: I work at iubenda where we create solutions for problems like yours, our software generates privacy policies based on user input.
I've posted about privacy policies for the Play Store on iubenda's company blog a while ago, this might help you out and give you the right ideas.
iubenda also helps with your problem of not having a site, the privacy policy is generated and hosted on our site, you can just copy-paste the link into the app and the app store.

You might be able to click the "Not submitting a privacy policy URL at this time" check box at the "Store Listing" page:
Screenshot from Google Play Store Store Listing page
But even if you don't collect personal data, you're still required by Google Analytics Terms of Service to have the Privacy Policy agreement:
Screenshot from Google Analytics Terms of Service
However, it's important to keep in mind that if you use third party tools like Google Analytics you may also be required by those parties to have the Privacy Policy.
But Google Play Store requires you to have the policy before the app is public. Here's a quote from the Google Play Developer Distribution Agreement:
You agree that if you use the Store to distribute Products, you will
protect the privacy and legal rights of users. If the users provide
you with, or your Product accesses or uses, user names, passwords, or
other login information or personal information, you must make the
users aware that the information will be available to your Product,
and you must provide a legally adequate privacy notice and protection
for those users.

There are many websites to make a privacy policy like this and this. You can create the privacy policy there and then copy the text. Then, you can host a file on GitHub and then set this text in the file

Republish Android app after updating the privacy ploicy

My recently uploaded version of an existing app on Google Play wasn't published since it didn't meet certain privacy policy criteria . Now, I've updated the privacy policy on my website; however how do I re-submit the app so that the new version goes live?

With millions of emails sent by Google warning developers you are definitely not alone. Before resubmitting, update your privacy policy correctly, you do want to make sure you submit it with the necessary changes.
You say you've updated your privacy policy on your site, however Google requires the privacy policy to be there compliant in the Google Play store as well. That's likely where you need to resubmit.
To add it to the Store Listing:
Log into your Google Play Developer Console
Next, select All Applications and select the application whose privacy policy you'd like to edit.
After that, select Store Listing.
Then, scroll to the section marked Privacy Policy and enter the URL where you have the privacy policy hosted online.
Lastly, be sure to click Save or update.
More information about how to write your privacy policy for the Play Store
The best way to comply is to have a readable, understandable and easily accessible privacy policy, which at a minimum informs users about:
who you are (identity and contact details),
what precise categories of personal data the app wants to collect and process,
why the data processing is necessary (for what precise purposes),
whether data will be disclosed to third parties (not just a generic but a specific description to whom the data will be disclosed),
what rights users have, in terms of withdrawal of consent and deletion of data.
With that said, if you do decide to create your own policy, here are some tips:
Outline which dangerous/sensitive permissions you request
Outline any other user data you collect, for instance advertisement services!
Describe what purpose they serve and use them only for that purpose
Information about the site/app owner.
The kind of data being collected and how it is collected.
The purpose of the data collection (i.e. analytics, email marketing).
Any third parties that have access to the information and through which means (widgets and integrations).
The rights of users regarding their data (i.e. the ability to request to see the data, to rectify, erase, or block).
The process for notifying users and visitors regarding material changes to the privacy policy.
Effective date of the privacy policy.
(p.s I work on a tool called iubenda that helps with the generation of a privacy policy - link)