In a recent move, Google has decided to review all the Android Apps on its Play Store that fetch the user's location while running in the background. Google have said that from 3rd August, all the Google Play Store apps will be reviewed for their usage of location.
Although, this move might not be very crucial for companies who uses Personal Location for Real-time services i.e Uber, Careem etc. But those apps which might not tell the user's of being track while tracking process runs in the background will be dealt with strict protocols. Google says, Apps will have to justify the usage of Location access from the background services until it justifies the need of background location sharing, Google will allow this otherwise Google will crack down on the app.
This decision looks very similar to what we called IOS 13's footsteps as the Apple operating system offers reminders that the following apps are using/tracking your real-time location. However, these policies were little late from the Google which was being criticized by some developers in the past.
The other interesting thing that Google saying is that these policies will also be applied to Google Apps. I mean how funny it is saying this. We all know, tech giants like Facebook, Google, Whatsapp etc. anyhows tracks your location and your personal data whenever you're connected to the internet. So, why would Google limits itself not to get the Location of its users.
After this implementation, Android App develops will have to either restrict or must have to be very careful while using the 3rd Party SDK's and libraries while development of apps otherwise Google will not allow such apps to be uploaded on Google's Play Store.
This decision looks very similar to what we called IOS 13's footsteps as the Apple operating system offers reminders that the following apps are using/tracking your real-time location. However, these policies were little late from the Google which was being criticized by some developers in the past.
The other interesting thing that Google saying is that these policies will also be applied to Google Apps. I mean how funny it is saying this. We all know, tech giants like Facebook, Google, Whatsapp etc. anyhows tracks your location and your personal data whenever you're connected to the internet. So, why would Google limits itself not to get the Location of its users.
After this implementation, Android App develops will have to either restrict or must have to be very careful while using the 3rd Party SDK's and libraries while development of apps otherwise Google will not allow such apps to be uploaded on Google's Play Store.
