Google says it is withdrawing its decision to remove a section from the Play Store that lists what permissions the app uses. The company more or less replaced that information with its data protection section, which should give you an idea of what data apps are collecting and how that data is used.
The problem, as several commenters pointed out, is that the information in the Data Protection section came from the developers, while the App Permissions section was generated by Google. By removing this, Google made it impossible for users to do a quick fact-check by comparing two sections, or to use information from both, to get a more complete picture of what an app is doing and what it has access to.
In a Twitter thread on Thursday as seen by Android PoliceGoogle says that the App Permissions section will be back soon and has decided to bring it back due to user feedback. At the time of writing, I was unable to see it on my device, but when the section comes back, it should be available along with the data protection section.
The Data Protection section provides users with a simple view of how an app collects, shares and secures user data, but we also want to make app permissions information easily viewable for users so that specific restricted data And also understand the ability of the app to access functions.
— Android Developers (@AndroidDev) 21 July 2022
Google’s data protection clause, which it announced in May 2021 and launched in April this year, is similar to Apple’s privacy label. Developers must tell Google what they do with users’ data (such as whether it has been shared with third parties and what type of data the app collects) and provide other information, such as whether Users can ask that their data be deleted and if the data is encrypted. While Google says only developers know those details, it says it will take action against an app if it finds inaccuracies in data protection information.