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Leo S.
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Sander D.
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Last updated:
July 18, 2024
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If you’re an avid Android user, you know how clustered the Google Play Store is and how desperately it needs a little cleanup. Fortunately, you won’t have to wait much longer as Google recently announced that it will purge the Play Store from all apps that don’t have proper privacy policies. The task won’t be easy, because as of December 2016, Google Play has more than 2.5 million different apps, Once the purge is done, the Play Store will become a much secure place from which you’ll be able to download apps without having to worry about your data being stolen or handled improperly.
Let’s not beat about the bush: Google and privacy policies are two terms that often alarm people when put together – and for very good reasons. This time, however, Google’s intentions are very noble; in fact, it is actually being saluted by the community for its efforts towards a “cleaner” Play Store. In order to achieve so, Google is sending notices to developers whose apps have no privacy policies or don’t comply with Google’s User Data policy. The notice gives two chances for developers to assure that their apps are not deleted: either they create a proper privacy policy or remove the requests for private and sensitive user data.
The latter is an important move, because giving permission for an app to access sensitive data like (contacts, text messages, financial and payment information, etc.) might lead to the app’s developer using your information for all sorts of wrongdoing and targeted advertisements. However, once the new Google Play rules enter into effect, all apps must comply with Google’s User Data policy by stating that in their own privacy policy and must handle user data securely by transmitting it over secure HTTPS connections.
The cleanup (due on March 15th, 2017) was more than necessary: according to a 2014 study, 85% of the apps were unsafe, as they failed to provide adequate information regarding privacy. Even though this will result in a less crowded Play Store, the cleansing will not affect third-party apps and, let’s be honest, Google will still have plenty of tricks up its sleeves to monitor you.
To avoid that, you should consider the use of a VPN for mobile. A VPN not only allows you to access other countries’ Play Stores, but it also guarantees that all your data is encrypted and protected by the world’s finest security protocols.
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