According to a new study, Google Play Store does not adequately protect your personal data

In 2022, Google introduced some major modifications to the Play Store. The changes involved the addition of data safety labels to the Play Store listings by respective app developers. It was introduced to present the users with a brief account of information on which type of private data is accessed by the app. Furthermore, users were presented with the information whether the information is shared with any third party or not.

Given this scenario, Mozilla carried out a recent study on the top apps presented in the Play Store. The study indicates that most of the top apps have some differences in privacy policies and Play Store labels. A set of 20 paid and 20 free apps were included in this study. The results indicated that almost 80% have some differences between the privacy policies and the Play Store disclosures. 40% showed some major differences. Where only six apps scored positive out of the total forty apps.

The poorly rated apps include free apps from big and popular services. These include several privacy policies and Play Store disclosures. The privacy label of TikTok received the worst rating. The Google Play Data Safety Form of TikTok indicates that the data is not shared with third parties. However, the privacy policy catalogs various service providers including Google and Facebook. Furthermore, it also exposes that the company may distribute data to advertisers and creators.

Besides this, the apps by Google need some improvements too. Among the Google apps, some differences between their private labels and their policies were identified among YouTube, Chrome, Google Maps, and Gmail. In the study, Google Play Games scored the top. The games include Subway Surfers and Candy Crush Saga.

Mozilla indicates that Google has narrow descriptions for the collection and sharing of data. For this reason, developers hide the details and mislead users. In order to ensure safety and security companies need to simplify their privacy policies. In addition to this, the companies need to execute the security measure effectively.