How to fill in the Google Play data safety form
The form asks what your app collects and shares. Google compares the answers to your privacy policy and to what the build actually does.
What this is
The form asks what your app collects and shares. Google compares the answers to your privacy policy and to what the build actually does.
Step by step
- List every SDK in the app, not only the ones you wrote code for.
- For each one, find out what it sends and where.
- Answer the form from that list rather than from memory.
- Match the wording to the policy where the categories overlap.
- Re-check after every release that adds a dependency.
One thing people miss
Crash reporting, ad SDKs and analytics are the three that catch people out, because they collect before any of your code runs.
Keeping it true after launch
A legal page stops being true the moment the product moves past it, usually by adding a payment provider, an analytics SDK or a sign-in. No store re-checks your pages against your build, so the drift is yours to notice.
- Re-read it whenever you add a dependency that sees user data.
- Re-check what loads on the page after any change: the cookie notice and the policy have to agree.
- Keep the URL stable. Changing where a policy lives breaks every listing that points at it.
Common questions
How long does this take?
Minutes, once the page it points at exists. The writing is the slow part, not the form.
Can I change it later?
Yes, and you should whenever the app changes. What you want to avoid is changing the URL, because everything that points at it breaks.