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 In the past week, I received several emails indicating an app has been unpublished, with this explanation: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.