Google launched a ‘Data Safety’ section in its Play Store App.
The feature launched on Tuesday is meant to show people safety and privacy guidelines before they download an app, such as how data is collected, protected and used.
Google said in a post, “we heard from users and app developers that displaying the data an app collects, without additional context, is not enough.”
“That’s why we designed the Data safety section to allow developers to clearly mark what data is being collected and for what purpose it’s being used.”
The section shows:
- Whether the developer is collecting data, and for what purpose.
- Whether the developer is sharing data with third parties.
- The app’s security practices, like encryption of data in transit and whether users can ask for data to be deleted.
- Whether the developer has validated its security practices against a global security standard (more specifically, the Mobile Application Security Assessment).
Google announced the Data safety section in July, and it covers both first-party and third-party app developers. The feature is similar to Apple’s “nutrition labels” for apps.