Official Update your privacy policy - Google removing games from store

@mikaisomaa Sorry but can you tell me how do i link the privacy policy to Google ads console. I am new to this
Thank You in advance

 

What does it exactly means? When I uploaded application to Play Store (about a month ago) I have added my privacy policy link to the appropriate field. In it I have stated that my applications may use Unity ads and linked your policy's site in it (as I understood, GDPR needs this). As far as I know this has been required for a long time (at least since GDPR) and I didn't got any notification of an updated agreement.

Do you mean the Play Store Developer console (where I upload the applications) under Google Ads console? Maybe it is a dumb question, but I should only contact support if there is a problem with my application listing, yes?

Is it really a "new" thing and I missed something or is it only about the need of a privacy policy on the application's page?

 

@Zwiebel This is recent enforcement by Google. In the past week, I received several emails indicating an app has been unpublished, with this explanation:

"Issue: Violation of Usage of Android Advertising ID policy and section 4.8 of the Developer Distribution Agreement

Google Play requires developers to provide a valid privacy policy when the app requests or handles sensitive user or device information. We’ve identified that your app collects and transmits the Android advertising identifier, which is subject to a privacy policy requirement. If your app collects the Android advertising ID, you must provide a valid privacy policy in both the designated field in the Play Console, and from within the app."

These are all apps using Unity Ads. My apps that link to the Unity privacy policy in the store listing (if I remember correctly, the field is at the bottom of the Store Listing section in the Play Console) and also display a Privacy Policy button in-game using the Unity privacy plugin are fine.

 

@Meepo0 Here's a screenshot of my privacy policy link in the Google Play Console

 

Hmm... I thought it was a thing a few months ago too, but thanks for the explanation.

 

I'm having this issue as well for an app that is still in alpha testing. However, I am not using Unity ads but Admob. What privacy policy is adequate for this? Any help is appreciated.

 

What is Google Ads console, I haven't any, do you mean Google Play Console? If so what is my steps to resolve this? Should I paste https://unity3d.com/legal/privacy-policy link into Privacy Policy field in Store Listing tab of my app and send mail to google support, telling that the Unity Ads interface presents the players with a privacy policy and a dialogue for opting out from personalised ad targeting? Or should I just send a mail with telling this?
Also I didnt see any dialogues for opting out, I'm using built in ads under services panel with Unity 2017.3, should I update or something?
As I understood, publishing new apps with Unity Ads will not be exposed to this issue?

 

@mikaisomaa Hey is it okay to use the same privacy policy link of unity for apple app store privacy policy of my game?
i have added an screenshot of it here.

 

I feel like i am lost...
I don't understand what i need to do.
This is why my game has been removed: Issue: Violation of Deceptive Ads policy
What exactly do i need to do? Someone please help me understand that.
And why my other game is still on GooglePlay?

 

So... Now Unity Ads are my problem.

What the hell is "deceptive ads" if you use Unity Ads? Google play says they are.

How will this be fixed but November?

 

They don't want us making money!

 

You say "and a dialogue for opting out from personalised ad targeting.". But you should give us access to tell the Unity Ads SDK that the user has opting out.

The only way that I found is this

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/?stay#!/content/118922

Can you please confirm that this work with unity ads?

 

Hey guys this must be fix. Google is a god of game developer if we publish our app to them and we cannot do anything unless unity fix the GDPR compliance for unity ads.My google console account was terminated because i have 3 violations with the updated GDPR its really sad for me .

 

Since when?

 

I'm having a nightmare.....My game (which has been live for nearly a year), was suddenly removed last night. Google's e-mail said I needed a privacy policy so I added the Unity privacy link (higher up this thread). After re-submitting, rejected again but this time due to deceptive ads policy (I would assume Unity doesn't run these kinds of ads?). I tried re-submitting again but again refused but this time due to a metadata issue (my game is a space invaders style game) which I believe I corrected. After the last re-submission, I've gone back to a deceptive ads policy issue.

I've appealed to Google but can anyone shed any light on what might be the best way forward? Thanks.

 

@Kinkladze11 The deceptive ads issue has been reported elsewhere, or at least here:

https://forum.unity.com/threads/google-play-reject-because-of-ads-label.571891/

As I mentioned in that thread, based on some of the rejection screenshots I’ve seen and the wording of the deceptive ad rule in Google’s guidelines, I suspect the fundamental issue is that a Unity Ads video may have no labelling that it’s a video, so Google may be complaining the screens in the video looks like it’s part of your game. In that thread, Unity (@rasmus-unity I think) suggests making sure every ad is invoked with a button that makes clear you’re going to see an ad. I’m also thinking about going back to banner ads.

 

Now that the iOS app store requires a privacy policy url, can we use the Unity privacy policy link for that too?

 

That’s’ what I do.

 

Thanks for coming back to me. I got a response from Google. Basically my game had links to my other games that are live in the Play store, seems Google classify doing this as 'Deceptive' even though it's clear what the links are. Anyway, after removing them, game was republished. They didn't offer any explanation as to why I got several different violation messages.......

 

Hi there,

I've been trying to search for a reply to the problem I'm having, and found ways to solve it, but I didn't find any replies that actually explain why it happens.

I got a message from Google about an App I've got on the store and later my App got removed.

The App has no advertising whatsoever and does not use analytics either, so I replied to this email explaining that and saying that I believed it must've been an error.

So I got the following email:

So, I understand, if I add a privacy policy on the store and inside the App, it will be up again soon. However I'd really rather not have to do that. But even if I have to, I'd like to know what's actually going on with my app.

I really don't understand why this is happening as I'm not collecting any data, using no ads and no analytics. Does Unity by default collect this "Android Advertising ID" whenever you build a project with it? If so, does that mean than from now on, absolutely any App I create with Unity will need to include a Privacy Policy saying it uses such things? And if that is so... why did only 1 of my apps get removed from the store?

Hope someone knows what's going on, I'm really confused.

Thank you.

 

One thing to check is that even if you’re not using ads, make sure you don’t have ad code included in your project, including any third party ad sdks like admob, make sure unity ads is not included via asset store or package manager or enabled in the Services window.

 

- Only service I'm using is Collaborate, no Analytics and no Ads.
- I'm using Unity 5.6.1p2 for this project, so the Package Manager doesn't even exist.
- Don't even know what admob is, and after looking through my project I really couldn't find anything that might be related to advertising.
- Only plugins I believe I'm using are "TextMeshPro" (old version, before it was included in the PackageManager) and "GoogleVR" (using Cardboard and Oculus VR SDKs).

Any other ideas?

Thank you.

 

@Binary-Soul Well, somehow I was under the impression that if you have no ad SDKs included that there'd be no reference to the advertising ID, but I'm starting to think I'm wrong. There's another thread specifically on that:

https://forum.unity.com/threads/google-play-violation-of-advertising-id.558010/

and I just noticed there are at least a couple of Unity API functions outside of Unity Ads that access the advertising ID, like this:

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/iOS.Device-advertisingIdentifier.html

It would be good to have some clarification from Unity on this.

 

Yeah, I already saw that post, but there are no clear answers. Some people post a solution, but that's not my issue. I'm pretty sure if I added a privacy policy and reuploaded my App, everything would be fine.

But solving a problem without knowing what's actually causing it will probably make me repeat it accidentally in the future! I'd like to understand what on earth is going on before I actually take that step.

A clear reply from someone at Unity would be really useful.

 

Got same problem, Google Play Console is so random - i have another app with same solutions, and my games are practically offline and don't store any sensitive user data.

First time it happens - I did add privacy policy to both store page and inside app, and my app was shown in google play again - day after they send me same copy-paste e-mail:
"Issue: Violation of Usage of Android Advertising ID policy and section 4.8 of the Developer Distribution Agreement"

The problem is that it seems be fully automated process - it don't seems like real people work in Google

 

[QUOTE = "mikaisomaa, postagem: 3704053, membro: 934860"] Recentemente, tomamos conhecimento de algumas alterações no Contrato de distribuição do desenvolvedor do Google que afetarão nossos editores de anúncios da Unity.

As alterações afetam todos os jogos que coletam o ID do anunciante do Google (GAID) para exibir anúncios para os usuários. Isso significa que nossos editores que não atualizaram recentemente sua política de privacidade (desde a introdução de novas leis GDPR), tanto no Google Play Console quanto em seus aplicativos, correm o risco de ter seu jogo removido da loja. Os novos jogos não devem ser afetados, pois agora são feitos para atender a esses requisitos ao adicioná-los à loja.

Você pode resolver isso vinculando / copiando nossa política de privacidade no console de anúncios do Google e declarando ao suporte do Google que a interface do Unity Ads apresenta aos jogadores uma política de privacidade e um diálogo para desativar a segmentação personalizada de anúncios.

Links:
https://unity3d.com/legal/privacy-policy
https://play.google.com/about/developer-distribution-agreement.html [/ QUOTE]


Estou enfrentando sérios problemas com a exibição de anúncios aleatórios no meu aparelho android. O problema maior é que estes anúncios são exibidos a qualquer momento, independente do aplicatico que eu esteja usando no momento, seja navegador de internet, jogos, app de redes sociais ou até mesmo sem executar nenhum app, apenas com a tela do aparelho desbloqueada. Achei o seguinte link e creio que se trate do mesmo problema: https://forum.unity.com/threads/random-unity-ads-from-background-apps.610777/
Gostaria de uma solução pra este infortúnio tendo em vista que é irritante.

 

Privacy policy is found by opening the Google Play Console and selecting the "Store listing" for the appropriate app and then scrolling all the way to the bottom. It is NOT something you can simply paste into the listing, as this will still be a violation on its own. It has to be presented as a webpage that can be linked in the box.

While you do have the option to state that you are not providing a privacy policy at this time, Google can still reject or suspend your application if they feel one was required. Please note that very few appeals are accepted without having extremely overwhelming evidence that their decision is blatantly wrong.

Once a package is suspended, you will be forced to publish a new package name as a new listing, despite the claims that you can publish an update to resolve the issue. This option is disabled when actually attempting to use it.

Real people do work there, which makes it even more pathetic and offensive knowing that some random employee got up in the morning, had his coffee, rode a bike to work, and only has enough functioning brain cells to click an option from a list.

Sometimes, on a full moon, when their best and brightest have just started the week, you might even get a detail or two thrown into the automated reply that are just for you. So far, I have seen this about 1 in 100 times in the last 10 years. On the other hand, at least 1 in 10 rejections were overturned simply by changing the version number.

 

Hi, did you find a solution to the problem? I don't undestand what should be the way to fix this issue.

 

I would also like a solution so that I dont repeat this again.

 

MY LAST CONTACT WITH GOOGLE SUPPORT:

Selena
2:01 PM
You are now connected to Selena. Please type your message and hit 'Enter' to send.
Selena
2:01 PM
Hi there, thanks for contacting Google Play Developer Support!
There will be a short survey at the end of our chat so you can provide feedback on the service I'm providing.
How can I help you today?
LoomaBox
2:02 PM
I have a question in regards to Google's new requirements
Selena
2:02 PM
May I ask which requirements are you referring to?
LoomaBox
2:03 PM
Requirements to have Privacy Policy INSIDE MY APP, not just link to my web site in the store
Selena
2:04 PM
f your app requests user data or makes sensitive permissions requests (such as Phone, Accounts, Contacts, Camera, or Microphone) you'll need to add a valid privacy policy in two places: your app's Store Listing page and within your app.
LoomaBox
2:04 PM
https://play.google.com/about/monetization-ads/ads/ad-id/
LoomaBox
2:05 PM
https://play.google.com/about/privacy-security-deception/personal-sensitive/
LoomaBox
2:06 PM
I have intentionally downloaded several TOP FREE GAMES currently on Google Play Market and I am sure that they DO REQUEST user data, but NONE follow the requirements outlined in the links above
LoomaBox
2:08 PM
I plan to use AdMob, UnityAds and Unity Analytics in order to deliver and monetize my app.
LoomaBox
2:10 PM
In your definition "Personal and sensitive user data includes, but isn't limited to, personally identifiable information...". AdMob, UnityAds and Unity Analytics HAVE TO USE personally identifiable information in order to deliver their products.
LoomaBox
2:11 PM
NONE of the apps currently on Play Market follow Prominent Disclosure Requirement as outlined here https://play.google.com/about/privacy-security-deception/personal-sensitive/
Selena
2:11 PM
I am afraid I am not able to comment on the privacy policy.
Selena
2:12 PM
If you have questions about what to include in your privacy policy, please refer to our User Data policy (links above). If you have questions that cannot be answered by the User Data policy, you will need to ask your attorney or other legal counsel. As much as I'd like to help, I don't have any further information to share about what should or should not be included in the privacy policy
LoomaBox
2:13 PM
No, my question is NOT about what should or should not be included in the privacy policy. My question is to ensure not to have my app removed, blocked or suspended.
LoomaBox
2:16 PM
Could you please refer me to any SAMPLE app, that COMPLIES with Play Store requirements on presenting Privacy Policy to their users, Prominent Disclosure Requirement and specifically gets user's consent and affirmative user action INSIDE THE APP?
LoomaBox
2:17 PM
My point is that MOST of the apps on Play Store seems to fail to comply with all of that, but neither blocked nor updated.
Selena
2:17 PM
I am afraid that the article is the guideline we have for the privacy policy.
Selena
2:18 PM
I would recommend to follow the guideline for your app.
Selena
2:18 PM
I am afraid I am not able to comment on other apps
LoomaBox
2:19 PM
Does Google have a SAMPLE app to look into as a guideline?
Selena
2:20 PM
I am afraid we have the policy as guidelines in the links above.
LoomaBox
2:21 PM
Besides, could you please give a bit more explanation to Prominent Disclosure Requirement:
In cases where users MAY NOT EXPECT that their personal or sensitive user data will be required to provide or improve the features of your app...
LoomaBox
2:22 PM
so the Prominent Disclosure Requirement is not necessary if it is a common sense for any user to DO EXPECT that their personal or sensitive user data will be required to provide or improve the features of your app...
LoomaBox
2:22 PM
???
Selena
2:23 PM
I apologise we cannot make interpretations of the policy.
Selena
2:23 PM
That is all the information we can provide.
LoomaBox
2:23 PM
Thank you
Selena
2:24 PM
Sorry about any inconvenience.
Selena
2:24 PM
Is there anything else I can help you with?
LoomaBox
2:25 PM
One last question. In case my app gets blocked in the future, will I have a chance to speak to a LIVE PERSON over a LIVE CHAT or EMAIL?
Selena
2:26 PM
Yes, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Selena
2:26 PM
Did you have any other questions today?
LoomaBox
2:27 PM
None, let's move to the survey
Selena
2:27 PM
Okay Great! Thank you for chatting with me today.
I hope you have a great day!
Selena
2:27 PM
Thanks for chatting with Google Play Developer Support today! Let us know how we're doing with our 60 second survey at https://support.google.com/googlepl...transactional?ctx=chat&hl=en&caseid=[REMOVED]
Your chat session is now complete.
Selena ended the chat

 

unityads need advertising id ? can i disable it with manifest file ?

 

Will Google Play Store show up anything similar for apk build by Unity?

 

Charlotte
4:17 PM
You are now connected to Charlotte. Please type your message and hit 'Enter' to send.
Loomabox
4:17 PM
Hello
Charlotte
4:17 PM
Hi there, thanks for contacting Google Play Developer Support!
There will be a short survey at the end of our chat so you can provide feedback on the service I'm providing.
How can I help you today?
Loomabox
4:19 PM
I have a question regarding Google Play's Prominent Disclosure screen with ACCEPT button before starting application
Loomabox
4:20 PM
like this https://www.termsfeed.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/snapchat-android-app-permissions-accept-box.jpg
Charlotte
4:21 PM
Sure.
Charlotte
4:21 PM
What is the question?
Loomabox
4:21 PM
how to make sure this pop up appears before starting the app
Charlotte
4:22 PM
This will be generated depending on the permission request you have on your app's manifest.
Loomabox
4:23 PM
is this controlled by Google Play?
Charlotte
4:24 PM
Correct.
Loomabox
4:24 PM
so depending on the permissions Google Play will show this pop up message and will get user consent?
Charlotte
4:25 PM
That is correct.
Loomabox
4:25 PM
Should I in this case assume that Google's Prominent Disclosure Requirement are met?
Charlotte
4:26 PM
Correct.
Loomabox
4:27 PM
I have no further questions! Thank you!
Charlotte
4:27 PM
That's great, I hope you have a lovely day.
Loomabox
4:27 PM
you, too
Charlotte
4:27 PM
Thanks for chatting with Google Play Developer Support today! Let us know how we're doing with our 60 second survey at https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/contact/survey_transactional?ctx=chat&hl=en&caseid=9-2238000026082
Your chat session is now complete.

CASE CLOSED on Prominent Disclosure Requirement.

 

So.. if I understood correctly, as long as it's in the manifest, we have to do nothing about the prominent disclosure, right? It takes care of itself...

 

The information about Android permissions is here

https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/permissions/overview

but this is a different issue from the original post about privacy policies, so I suggest moving to a different thread for any further discussion.

 

Is it possible to modify a manifest file to implement Custom Permission (https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/permissions/defining) for Google Play's Prominent Disclosure screen with an ACCEPT button?

 

I recently uploaded a app for alpha-testing to Google Play. I currently has NO ADS and NO IAP but still my app got banned with this reason:
Issue: Violation of Usage of Android Advertising ID policy and section 4.8 of the Developer Distribution Agreement

 

i had same issue last night, i went to publisher portal copied unity privacy policy in my store listing and now the app is approved again without having to push an update

 

Thanks, that helped!

 

I read over your discussions with Google and it sounds like you were having trouble with separating permissions and privacy policy. Prominent disclosure boxes are what they are calling the permission requests since they went from being part of the install / update screen based on manifest values to also being presented in the app itself, but can also extend to any box that presents the user with an optional request to access personal data.

There are certain permissions that will ALWAYS require a request, regardless of how limited your use of it may seem. This includes things like external storage (common for games), location, SMS, and other items that typically involve specific hardware or paid services. As long as the code is active, even if it doesn't necessarily perform the intended action, there is a good chance they will say you have to request the permission.

Similarly, this thread is about the issue of needing a privacy policy even when nothing in the app appears to require it. This is because advertising code is present, even though it is not used for the intended purpose of advertising. That means you now require a privacy policy for advertising without making a single dime. Fantastic!

Creating a custom permission will not solve your issue. There are very few times they are even useful, unless you are working with a collection of apps. One example is that silly root permission that the Superuser apps began to verify. These are not real permissions, so attempting to use one to force a dialog may actually fall under deceptive behavior.

From the sound of it, you do not need a permission request. Instead, you need a disclosure that informs users of the privacy policy. It can be as simple as a popup giving the user a link or as complex as a full written copy. The two most common ways you see games doing it are a checkbox to accept the policy or a privacy policy button alongside a button to start the game.

 

Hello all, I wanted to update you all on a solution that worked for me, and has continued to work so far.

My app was removed from the Google Play Store for similar problems and violations as you all have seen, and I have come across a solution that works because I have no ads, I do not monetize the app using ads, and I do not use Unity Analytics in the app whatsoever.

I did NOT include a privacy statement because I no longer need one, since I am not collecting any data at all. No analytics, no ads, no data collection of any kind.

After doing quite a bit of research, it appears that my problem was that Unity Analytics was collecting and sending basic device information in the background of my program. Some users have said that the best way to prevent this was to purchase the Premium version of Unity to shut this feature off, but many other users have said they have gotten limited success from it.

What I've done is disable hardware statistics in player settings, modify the Unity Connect Settings asset, and attempt to deactivate analytics at run time. I realize that it is very likely that these steps are redundant, and maybe even optional, but I really wanted to make sure this problem didn't cause me to have my apps removed in the future.

These are the steps I've taken:


Disable Hardware Statistics in Player Settings:

Purpose: I am attempting to prevent Unity from collecting information about the devices it's being used on, and sending that to Unity servers, which would require me to create a privacy statement.

• In Unity, in the toolbar, go to File > Build Settings
• In the Build Settings window, in the lower left-hand corner, click the "Player Settings..." button
• The Inspector will open displaying the Player Settings
• Select the "Android settings" tab in the Player Settings window if it has not already been selected
• Select the "Other Settings" drop down
• Under "Configuration", select the "Disable HW Statistics" checkbox, and make sure it is checked

Manually Edit the Unity Connect Settings Asset.

Purpose: I am attempting to force Unity not to initialize Unity Analytics at start up. Creating a privacy policy and an opt-out interrogative feature would be cumbersome and unnecessary.

• Build your Unity Project
• Once it has finished building, leave Unity open and do not close Unity
• Enter into your file hierarchy (for example, this would be opening up Windows Explorer)
• In your file hierarchy, navigate to the project location where your Unity project is saved.
  • This was defined by you when you first created the app.
  • The folder should be named after your project.
  • When you are in the correct folder you will see folders like "Assets", "Library", "Packages", "Logs", etc.
• In the project location, open the "ProjectSettings" folder
• Open the UnityConnectSettings.asset file
• Change the following settings in the file, some items left intentionally blank:

CrashReportingSettings:

m_EventUrl:​

UnityPurchasingSettings:

m_Enabled: 0
m_TestMode: 0​

UnityAnalyticsSettings:

m_Enabled: 0
m_TestMode: 0
m_InitializeOnStartup: 0​

UnityAdsSettings:

m_Enabled: 0
m_InitializeOnStartup: 0
m_TestMode: 0
m_IosGameId: 0
m_AndroidGameID: 0
m_GameIds:

AndroidPlayer: 0
iPhonePlayer: 0
tvOSPlayer: 0​

m_GameId: 0​

PerformanceReportingSettings:

m_Enabled: 0​

• Save the file
• You may close Unity at your leisure.

Disable all analytics at run-time:

Purpose: I am attempting to prevent Unity from changing some of the previous connection settings during run time due to background process that are beyond my control.

• Create a method which will be accessed at startup
  • I personally created a class which has a static method that is executed at the start up of any scene.
• Write the following method:
• Code (CSharp):

  1. public static void disableAnylitics()
  2.     {
  3.         UnityEngine.Analytics.Analytics.enabled = false;
  4.         UnityEngine.Analytics.Analytics.deviceStatsEnabled = false;
  5.         UnityEngine.Analytics.Analytics.initializeOnStartup = false;
  6.         UnityEngine.Analytics.Analytics.limitUserTracking = false;
  7.         UnityEngine.Analytics.PerformanceReporting.enabled = false;
  8.     }
• In the event that Unity changed some of these values to true, re-setting them immediately will hopefully turn Unity Analytics off and prevent unwanted data collection

If you read this suggestion, let me, and everyone else in the thread, know how it went. Again, it's worked for me so far, but I do not have any ad or analytics features in my app. It's been a month since I uploaded the newest version, and I've yet to get a complaint or violation from the store.

 

Hi I put this in manifest reuploaded App
<meta-data android:name="google_analytics_adid_collection_enabled" android:value="false" />
Got published and hasn't been removed since.

On another note simply pasting a privacy link into the store page as some have suggested does not cut it anymore
I tried this couple of Apps lasted a day than got removed had to put privacy policy link in App as well.

Create an App in Unity don't matter if you are not showing ADS it will get pulled at some point as they are using ADID anyways you must either submit privacy polices ( which is probably the correct thing to do these days rgardless of what your App does ) or disable ADID.

 

My manifest already had that entry, and it still got removed both times. My solution fixed my problem. Changing the manifest was actually one of the first things I tried, but when I realized it was already okay, I had to come up with a new solution.

That's the thing: by disabling Unity Analytics, I don't need a privacy policy because neither I, nor Unity, are collecting any information from the customer's device.