Posted by Bethel Otuteye, Senior Director, Product Administration, Android App Security
It’s our prime precedence to maintain Android and Google Play protected for builders to construct profitable companies and supply high quality apps and video games to billions of customers all over the world. Over the previous years, we’ve continued to share extra instruments to assist defend your apps, evolve our insurance policies to assist preserve folks and their households protected and safe, and collaborate with you to construct extra personal promoting know-how.
We all know it may be troublesome to maintain up with how shortly the privateness and safety panorama evolves. So, we’ve been sharing extra product and coverage assist, frequent updates about our work, and advance discover about modifications. As we did final 12 months, we’re sharing a preview of a few of our key priorities that we’re excited to collaborate with you on, on the behalf of our shared customers.
What we stay up for this 12 months
Constructing a extra privacy-friendly strategy to promoting
Final 12 months, we introduced the Privateness Sandbox on Android, an industry-wide initiative to boost the bar for person privateness and guarantee continued entry to free content material and providers. Constructing on our net efforts, we’re growing options for digital promoting that restrict person information sharing and do not depend on cross-app identifiers. We’re working carefully with the {industry} to assemble suggestions and check these new applied sciences.
Now, we’re getting into the subsequent part of this initiative: Rolling out the primary Beta for the Privateness Sandbox on Android to a small proportion of Android units. With the Beta, customers and builders will be capable to expertise and consider these new options in the actual world. See our developer steering on the best way to take part within the Beta and comply with our Privateness Sandbox weblog for normal updates. We’ll proceed to work in collaboration with builders, publishers, regulators and extra as we navigate the transition to a extra personal cell ecosystem.
Giving folks extra management over their information
Builders need to construct shopper belief by showcasing accountable information practices in a approach that’s easy and simple to grasp. Over the previous few years, we’ve helped builders present extra transparency round if and the way they accumulate, share, and defend person information. This 12 months, we’ll proceed bettering Google Play’s Knowledge security part with new options and insurance policies that goal to offer folks extra readability and management round deletion practices.
You may as well improve your customers’ security by decreasing the permissions you request for accessing customers’ information. Your app can usually leverage privacy-preserving strategies for fulfilling its use case. For instance, you should use the photograph picker intent to permit customers to pick particular person photographs to share together with your app quite than requesting entry to all of the photographs on their gadget by way of runtime permissions. You may as well begin testing privateness, safety, and transparency enhancements in our Android 14 Developer Preview 1. Keep tuned to our Android 14 and Google Play coverage updates, as we’ll share extra quickly.
Defending your apps from abuse and assaults
Builders have informed us that they need extra assist defending their enterprise, customers, and IP. So, we’ve continued enhancing Play Integrity API and automated integrity safety that will help you higher detect and stop dangers, and strengthen your anti-abuse technique. Builders who use these merchandise have seen a mean of over 50% discount in unauthorized entry of their apps and video games. Get began at present with the Play Integrity API. And, keep tuned for some highly-requested characteristic updates to integrity merchandise and expanded entry to automated integrity safety.
Builders have shared that they need extra assist deciding which SDKs are dependable and protected to make use of. So, we’ve created methods for SDK suppliers to immediately message you thru Play Console and Android Studio about vital points for particular SDK variations and the best way to repair SDK-related crashes. We’ve additionally launched Google Play SDK Index to offer you insights and utilization information for over 100 of the preferred business SDKs on Google Play. Quickly, we’ll share much more details about delicate permissions an SDK might use and whether or not particular SDK variations might violate Google Play coverage. By partnering with SDK suppliers to construct safer SDKs and providing you with higher perception, we hope that will help you and your customers keep away from disruptions and publicity to dangers.
We’re proud that along with builders, we have now made Google Play a trusted vacation spot for households to search out academic and pleasant experiences for teenagers. Over the previous years, we’ve launched new options, expanded our packages, and advanced our insurance policies to enhance app expertise and strengthen privateness and safety protections. This 12 months, you’ll proceed to see improved methods for Google Play to assist households uncover nice apps and extra coverage updates to guard youngsters’ security. Keep up to date by way of our coverage electronic mail updates and PolicyBytes movies.
We proceed to emphasise that builders and apps ought to solely accumulate and use information that’s required for his or her apps to perform and supply high quality person experiences. This 12 months, you’ll proceed to see new permission and coverage necessities. Keep up to date by way of our coverage electronic mail updates and PolicyBytes movies.
Fostering developer innovation, whereas conserving customers protected
As a platform, we’re all the time trying to perceive the challenges builders face and assist them deliver revolutionary concepts to life. Whereas Google Play already hosts a wide range of blockchain associated apps, we’ve more and more heard from builders who need to introduce extra web3 parts, together with the tokenization of digital property as NFTs, into their apps and video games. With any new know-how, we should steadiness innovation with our accountability to guard customers, which is why we’ve begun conversations with developer companions to evaluate how potential coverage modifications may responsibly assist these alternatives. As all the time, partaking with builders is an important a part of how we evolve our platform and keep a protected, clear, and trusted expertise for our shared customers. We hope to have extra to share within the coming months.
Providing you with a greater expertise with our insurance policies and Console
We’re repeatedly bettering our coverage communication, assist, and expertise. We’ve just lately launched a brand new Play Console characteristic to offer you extra flexibility and management over the app assessment course of. This 12 months, we’ll present much more options and assist.
Builders have shared that they need a spot to ask questions and listen to from others. So in February, we opened up the Google Play Developer Neighborhood to all builders in English so you may ask for recommendation and share greatest practices with fellow developer consultants. Builders have shared constructive suggestions about this new discussion board, and we welcome you to signal as much as be a Product Skilled (choose Play Console as your product and English as your language).
We’re additionally increasing our pilot packages just like the Google Play Developer Helpline pilot, which offers direct coverage cellphone assist. At the moment, we’ve expanded the pilot to just about 60,000 in 26 nations (16,000 extra builders and 9 extra nations since November). We’ve accomplished almost 5,000 coverage assist periods with builders and with a satisfaction rating of 90%.
And final, we’ve additionally been sending you extra notices and reminders about upcoming necessities to your Developer Console Inbox, so we attain you whenever you’re excited about updating your app. This 12 months, we’re additionally constructing a brand new characteristic that will help you plan forward about declarations.
We’ll proceed to share updates with you all year long. Thanks in your partnership in conserving Android and Google Play protected and reliable for everybody.
