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Google Play keeps detecting collection of personal and sensitive information, rejecting my app

Discussion in 'Android' started by _Adriaan, May 7, 2020.

  1. BlueSpirit

    BlueSpirit

    Joined:
    Jun 10, 2013
    Posts:
    33
    We had the same issue, but I was finally able to fix it!
    Firebase Analytics was indeed the culprit for the rejection, because it adds an advertising mobule (AdMob) even though you might not be using it. This would flag the app for violating the Family Policy even if you've set "No, my app does not contain ads" in the App Content > Ads section in the Google Play Console Dashboard.

    I fixed this by:

    1. Adding this to the AndroidManifest following the Firebase Analytics documentation https://firebase.google.com/docs/an...&authuser=0#disable_advertising_id_collection
    Code (CSharp):
    1. <meta-data android:name="google_analytics_adid_collection_enabled" android:value="false" />
    2. Enabling "Custom Main Gradle Template" in the Project Settings, and excluded the modules by editing the mainTemplate.gradle file.
    Code (CSharp):
    1. implementation('com.google.firebase:firebase-analytics') {
    2.     exclude module: "play-services-ads-identifier"
    3.     exclude module: "play-services-measurement"
    4.     exclude module: "play-services-measurement-sdk"
    5. }
    Make sure the .aar and .jar files are deleted in the Project's Assets/Plugins/Android folder or it might create some conflicts with Gradle.

    Google Play Console used to give a warning in the App Content > Ads section saying "We have found ad SDKs in your app", but after making these changes the warning is gone :)

    You can analyze the Android build with Android Studio to make sure those modules are gone in your new build.
     
    altepTest likes this.
  2. Settos

    Settos

    Joined:
    Aug 3, 2015
    Posts:
    15
    Well I managed to update to children in the families program and pass Google's reviewing process. But that took like 3 weeks to get through, 3 weeks. I suggest everybody to not try to get into the family program. It's more of a pain in the ass than anything else. It just makes updating not just harder and increases your chances of getting rejected, the whole process takes far too long. I've got another app which I regularly update that gets always accepted within an hour.

    Now I'm trying to get those games I have that are in the family program to get out of the family program, but the reviewing process for that has also been ongoing for a week already. I hope they let me out, because I really need to make a quick update to fix a major bug which lost me a bunch of users.
     
  3. altepTest

    altepTest

    Joined:
    Jul 5, 2012
    Posts:
    1,105
    any tips of how did you do that? what settings you have used, how you have prepared unity?
     
  4. Settos

    Settos

    Joined:
    Aug 3, 2015
    Posts:
    15
    I told you to forget about the families program. With 3 weeks I mean a single upload took so long to review. It's a pain in the ass to wait for that long to update. Having your game in the families program won't really increase your downloads.It has no upsides only downsides from what I can tell. I would only try to get in with paid apps where I don't have any ads and analytics.

    But if you really want to get in. What does your rejection email say?

    Things they don't allow are rewarded ads. Only use interstitial ads or banner ads. Of couse you'll have to check "children under 13. And best check in your unity dashboard that ads are set to children under 13. It's also important that you use at least Unity Ads 4.1 or above. I would suggest that you remove unity ads and install "Ads with mediation" instead, because Unity Ads causes bunch of ANRs and Ads with mediation seems to be more stable. In app purchases also seem to be a no go if you specifically target children.These are the only things you need to pay attention to inside unity.

    The rest is what you declare on the playstore itself. Check your mail what points they have problems with.

    answer the Google play data safety section according to this list.
    https://docs.unity.com/ads/GoogleDataSafety.html

    There is of course always the chance that some reviewer will decide that your game itself is not child appropriate.
     
  5. altepTest

    altepTest

    Joined:
    Jul 5, 2012
    Posts:
    1,105
    No I don't want to enter that program, i was just curios of your experience with how you have managed to pass the review test.

    unfortunately this family program is just so google can say that they are protecting the children. in reality most children will play on their parents devices or if they have a device of their own is still in their parents name so it shows up as adults.

    google could maybe use AI to detect if a child is playing and enforce some limitations but why they would do that?
     
  6. Starbox

    Starbox

    Joined:
    Sep 17, 2014
    Posts:
    456
    Yes, don't touch that "family program" unless you really need to, such as if you made a game titled Oinky Oinky the Little Pig that was specifically for toddlers. Otherwise you're in for a huuuge world of hurt, wasting your time for weeks without even knowing what the hell is going on, and having to deal with Google's automated answers that will for the most part pre-select copy-paste stuff from the not helpful documentation that may, at best, be validated by one person before pressing send.
    By experience, and I mean solid experience, Google will send you messages relative to this family program even when you didn't apply your app for it!
    In other words, defer all responsibility to parents and put your game at 13+ or something equivalent.
    Then, if kids get access to your game, it's not your fault.
    Just remember to keep your advertising units kid friendly. Avoid religion, politics, drugs, casino, adult stuff.

    And don't forget to curse Google too.
     
    newlife likes this.
  7. tgrayston

    tgrayston

    Joined:
    Aug 30, 2012
    Posts:
    16
    Just wanted to thank you for this post, and confirm that this still appears to be Google Play's policy.

    In my case it was an old APK currently in production that caused my Open Testing APK to be rejected. Yes, you read that right. Google are not allowing me to test a new build that is compliant because the old version is not compliant. Remind me of the purpose of test tracks again?!!

    The original rejection email didn't mention this of course, but thanks to reading the above post, I appealed, asking for confirmation that the issue was with the new test APK and not the old production one. To their credit they replied, saying that the rejection stands, but confirming my suspicions that it was the old production APK that was non-compliant and causing the rejection of the new version. Crazy town.
     
    Starbox and Svintaj like this.
  8. altepTest

    altepTest

    Joined:
    Jul 5, 2012
    Posts:
    1,105
    I'm not even surprised.
     
  9. Starbox

    Starbox

    Joined:
    Sep 17, 2014
    Posts:
    456
    The safest thing to do is that when you have a new APK, you will push it through all the tracks you created, with the "promote to" option for example. It's terribly annoying and hopefully you haven't opened too many tracks either.
    Yes, it's extremely dumb and yes, Google barely provides any useful information. That disrespect has been going on for many years already, they don't care because you have to comply and put up with it. They could have made the process much more friendly and intuitive but won't do it. They probably don't have enough money for that.
     
  10. newlife

    newlife

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2010
    Posts:
    1,064
    Hello @startbox, my app got rejected due to missing neutral age,but even if I set the age target to 13+ it keeps stating that I need a neutral age screen
    upload_2024-1-25_13-12-25.png