Develop Reference

I have added privacy policy to play store and my application. It’s been 10 hours my application didn’t publish again

I have used Admob in my application but i forgot to add privacy policy but now I added privacy policy to the application and playstore but the application didn't appear on playstore again.
Please guide my how to resolve this issue.
Hi developers at Cmptrsntst,
After review, The News Headlines, binarysole.com.thenewsheadlines, has
been removed from Google Play due to a policy violation. This app
won’t be available to users until you submit a compliant update.
Issue: Violation of Usage of Android Advertising ID policy and section
4.8 of the Developer Distribution Agreement
Google Play requires developers to provide a valid privacy policy when
the app requests or handles sensitive user or device information.
We’ve identified that your app collects and transmits the Android
advertising identifier, which is subject to a privacy policy
requirement. If your app collects the Android advertising ID, you must
provide a valid privacy policy in both the designated field in the
Play Console, and from within the app.
Next steps: Submit your app for another review
Read through the Usage of Android Advertising ID and User Data
policies, as well as the Developer Distribution Agreement, and make
appropriate changes to your app. If you decide to collect sensitive
user information, be sure to abide by the above policies, and include
a link to a valid privacy policy on your app's store listing page and
within your app. Make sure that your app is compliant with all other
Developer Program Policies. Additional enforcement could occur if
there are further policy violations. Sign in to your Play Console and
submit the update to your app. Alternatively, you may opt-out of this
requirement by removing any requests for sensitive permissions or user
data.
If approved, your app will again be available with all installs,
ratings, and reviews intact.
If you’ve reviewed the policy and feel this removal may have been in
error, please reach out to our policy support team. One of my
colleagues will get back to you within 2 business days.
Thanks for helping us provide a clear and transparent experience for
Google Play users.
Regards,
Justin
The Google Play Team

I also had the exact same issue with one of my app and got same email because I hadn't included a privacy policy URL.
Now after I included the privacy policy URL and resubmitted the app from Store Listing, the app is now live after around 2 hours.
If you have already updated the privacy policy URL, make sure it is clear and it follows the Google's policies. Mention clearly that your app doesn't collect personally identifiable data.

How to check the number for strikes have I received?

2 years ago, I have received 2 email from google in the same day ( check below ). How many violations/strikes does my account need now to get suspended indefinitely ?
This is a notification that your application submission, xxx,
for package ID com.xxx.xxx.xxx, has been rejected. If
this submission was an update to an existing app, the version
published prior to this update is still available on Google Play.
Please address the issue described below, then submit an update with
your changes.
REASON FOR REJECTION:Violation of the Google Play content rating
policy.
These guidelines apply to all content in your app, including user
generated content, in-app products, and advertisements.
After a regular review, we’ve determined that your app has an
inaccurate content rating. Please retake the content rating
questionnaire for your app and resubmit your app for publishing.
All submission rejections are tracked. Repeated rejections due to
policy violations will result in app suspension, at which point this
app will count as a strike against the good standing of your developer
account and no longer be available on Google Play.
If you feel we have made this determination in error, you can submit
an appeal on the Google Play Help Center.
The Google Play Team
We’re always looking for ways to improve. Please share your feedback
on Play policy notification emails by completing this brief survey.
This is a notification that your application, xxx,
with package ID com.xxx.xxx.xxx, has been
suspended from the Google Play Store.
REASON FOR SUSPENSION:Violation of the impersonation or deceptive
behavior provisions of the Content Policy. Please refer to the
impersonation policy help article for more information.
If you are authorized to publish on behalf of the original content or
brand owner, please contact us via the Google Play Help Center and
attach verifiable and accepted proof of permission.
This particular app has been disabled as a policy strike. If your
developer account is still in good standing, you may revise and upload
a policy compliant version of this application as a new package name.
This notification also serves as notice for other apps in your
catalog. You can avoid further app suspensions by immediately ensuring
that no other apps in your catalog are in violation of (but not
limited to) the above policy. Please also ensure your apps’ compliance
with the Developer Distribution Agreement and Content Policy.
All violations are tracked. Additional suspensions of any nature may
result in the termination of your developer account, and investigation
and possible termination of related Google accounts. If your account
is terminated, payments will cease and Google may recover the proceeds
of any past sales and/or the cost of any associated fees (such as
chargebacks and transaction fees) from you.
If you feel we have made this determination in error, you can visit
this Google Play Help Center article.

Only a suspension counts as a strike on your account. Right now you have one suspension. If you get two more suspension your account will be terminated.

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.

Apk suspended violation of impersonation policy while publishing on Google Playstore

I am publishing an apk on Google Play Store. But my apk is rejected because they say my app is violating Google Impersonation Policy. But they never mentioned what is the reason. I am publishing it to production. Then I found possible violations after I have read the policy.
As you can see in the screenshots, I am using logos of Whatsapp, Facebook, Viber for social sharing purpose. I am also using Football Team and League Logos. According to the impersonation policy, that can be the only possible reason why my app is suspended. But I think that logos should be allowed to use. In the policy, it states that if I am using logo or copyright thing of others, I can use them if I can show them the permission.
For Facebook logo, Viber logo and Whatsapp Logo, where can I get that permission? Besides, it is not possible to get permission from all football teams to use their logos. Then I found this link - How to check an app violates Google's the impersonation policy or not. In the green answer, it says if I tried publishing as Alpha testing, I will get the reason of suspended. So when I tried with Alpha testing on Google Play Store, it also suspended. But it does not mention the reason of suspended as well. Here is the email I received:
What is the possible reason my app was suspended? Maybe because of the reason I mentioned? If they are, how can I solve it?

To get the Q & A into an usable answer:
Photo's and logo's have copyrights on them. As a programmer that means you cannot use them without (explicit) permission from the owner. Country flags do not fall under that. Google checks for this before release.
Note:
If you contact the owner of an image and ask for permission use, they might ask for a usage fee.
If you use images that you get from an API, check the user agreement. If not clear contact the creator of the API.
Social sharing logo's and button will have details on this, but in general it makes very little sense for them to limit their use.
Why go trough all this trouble?
Pay people for their work, don't steal.
You can get sued if you use images without permission.

Notification from google Play Store

Today i received an email from Google Play Team. How can I find which library or SDK is violating the conditions of the Google Play? Here is the content of mail:
This is a notification that your application, is currently in
violation of our developer terms. REASON FOR WARNING: Violation of the
Personal and Confidential Information provision of the Developer
Distribution Agreement:
(Dangerous Products): Apps that collect information (such as the
user's location or behavior) without the user's knowledge (spyware) …
are prohibited on Google Play. (Personal and Confidential
Information): We don't allow unauthorized publishing or disclosure of
people's private and confidential information, such as credit card
numbers, government identification numbers, driver's and other license
numbers, non-public contacts, or any other information that is not
publicly accessible. We have determined that one or more Ad SDKs or
libraries used in the above app facilitates the transmission of the
list of installed apps on the user’s device to a server without
conspicuous disclosure to the user that this is happening. This
violates the above policy provision. Please evaluate any third party
libraries for compliance and/or consult your Ad SDK provider(s) for
further information if necessary.
Your application will be removed if you do not bring it into
compliance by removing the ads sdk or library from your app, or
updating to a compliant version of the SDK(s) or library(ies) within
30 days of the issuance of this notification. If you have additional
applications in your catalog, please also review them for compliance.
Note that any remaining applications found to be in violation will be
removed from the Google Play Store.
Please also consult the Policy and Best Practices and the Developer
Distribution Agreement as you bring your applications into compliance.
You can also review this Google Play Help Center article for more
information on this warning.
All violations are tracked. Serious or repeated violations of any
nature will result in the termination of your developer account, and
investigation and possible termination of related Google accounts.
The Google Play Team

WOW!
exactly the same mail I received from Google play 2 days back! Word by word same.
Great, So the issue 100% is the permission settings for the Flurry and TapStream SDKs. I just contacted Flurry/Tapstream for this, awaiting a reply from them.
By the way I checked Tap Stream here
You can clearly see they have asked for adding an intent under the application tag
<receiver android:name="com.tapstream.sdk.ReferrerReceiver" android:exported="true" >
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="com.android.vending.INSTALL_REFERRER" />
</intent-filter>
</receiver>
This is used to get the list of apps installed just to record analytics to count the App installs and see how many users are still using the App.
but regarding the Location collecetion [Dangerous content] I still have to figure out.
One possible measure I have thought of doing is adding an EULA before letting user use the app, on the first run. It makes sure that my back is covered. Additionally, you can also add permission for FINE_LOCATION under manifest. Since it is for sure that one/both of the SDKs are using user location.
Good question!
Will update as soon as I receive any updates.
UPDATE
Finally, I received Mail from Tapstream, they are saying that they have made changes according to the Google's Policy change on November 15 2014 hence, asked me to change the SDK version to the lastest one.
Quoted here
Hi there,
Tapstream has updated its Android SDK to comply with a recent Google Play store policy change.
Due to this policy change, a minor component of Tapstream's device identification process can no longer be collected by the Android SDK. This change will not impact your tracking.
To avoid any app approval issues on the Play store, you should deploy this new SDK as soon as possible.
You can find the updated Android SDK here: tapstream.com/developer/android/sdk
The updated SDK is a drop-in replacement; no other changes are required. If you need any assistance, or would like further information, just reply to this email.
I hope that might serve as a solution apparently.