New App Privacy Standards to Be Required by Apple and Google

Earlier this summer, both Google and Apple announced that they would implement new changes to their respective app stores to set new app privacy standards and requirements to protect consumers. This means that, beginning in 2022, the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store will have heightened privacy standards.

Mobile App Privacy Standards to Be Heightened

For Apple and its App Store, Apple will now require that all mobile apps that pass through the App Store allow users to create accounts to enable deletion of their user accounts from within the app.  Google, on the other hand, will require mobile app developers to complete a Google Data Safety form when submitting their mobile apps to the Google Play Store.  The information provided by the app developers will be available to users that download the app if they choose to view the information in a new "Data Safety" section that Google will implement in the Google Play Store in 2022.

While Google has been collecting the forms and information submissions since this May, the information will only become visible in February of 2022.  It is also important to note that Google will provide feedback on the forms submitted, and mobile app developers must actually receive approval from Google before the information goes up on the Data Safety section. These forms must be approved before May 2022.

Increasing App Privacy Standards Is Taken as a Welcome Trend

Privacy proponents have been excited about these new steps toward increasing app privacy standards, as it has coincided with other movements by technology giants to encourage app developers to: secure their apps, be more transparent about what data the app may collect, be clear about how apps collect data, state how the analytics related to the data, note the uses of the data, and decide the ultimate deletion or retention policies of such user data.

Key Takeaways on Trend for Stricter App Privacy Standards 

Earlier this year, the Google Play Store and Apple App Store decided that new app privacy standards will: 

• go into effect in 2022 in their respective app stores;

• require app developers to be more transparent about their privacy practices; and

• allow Apple users to easily delete their accounts and Google users to easily obtain information about the app within the app store.

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