Google is attempting to reduce the amount of obnoxious, skippable adverts in Android applications and generally unsavory activity in the Play Store (via TechCrunch). On Wednesday, the business unveiled extensive policy updates that tighten up loopholes that developers could have used to get around current regulations. The updates update laws across multiple categories to be more precise.
Your daily phone use will be significantly impacted by one of the changes, which is how advertising is used. On September 30, Google will implement revised policies that it claims would help consumers have “high-quality experiences” with Google Play apps. According to the new regulation, applications cannot open a full-screen advertisement that you can’t remove after 15 seconds.
The 15-second criterion differs from Google’s existing policy, which states that advertising “must be readily dismissible without penalty” and that users must be able to drop out of full-screen ads. The (small, difficult to see) “x” will display after 70 seconds, which is still a bit of a wait, but it means that you won’t have to watch a two-minute advertisement while playing a game or attempting to do something else.
Ads shouldn’t “unexpectedly” appear shortly after you load a level or article, according to the new guidelines. Again, the existing regulations already prohibit unexpectedly disruptive advertisements, but the new regulations include additional specific examples of infractions.
It’s important to note that the ad regulations for children’s applications are tougher. Google isn’t making many changes to the kinds of advertisements that developers may show to children, but beginning in November, it will make some adjustments to the tools that developers use to deliver those advertisements.
The built-in VPN (virtual private network) features for Android are being modified by Google in other ways as well. Apps won’t be able to utilize VPNs to assist users to circumvent or alter advertisements from other apps or to deploy their own VPNs to collect user data unless they have the user’s express consent. Technical editor for Esper Mishaal Rahman noted on Twitter that this could help crack down on ad fraud, where users pretend to be in one country while actually in another by clicking on ads, but warns that it may also have an impact on features like DuckDuckGo’s privacy-focused app tracking protection.
Other adjustments are also included in Google’s new regulations. For instance, if an app sells subscriptions, developers will need to connect to an “easy-to-use, online option” for canceling subscriptions; the firm did state that linking to Google Play’s subscription center counts. Google has added a section to its policies prohibiting apps from containing false information about vaccines, treatments that have not received approval, or “other harmful health practices, such as conversion therapy.”
The update also includes some adjustments to the terminology around monitoring applications, or “stalker were,” noting that any app built to track people has to utilize a particular marker alerting Google what it’s doing and that apps have to declare that they can monitor or track you in their Play Store description. Google expressly states that using these applications to follow someone else, such as a spouse, is prohibited, even if the user claims the person being tracked is aware of it. These apps are still only permitted to track workers and children.
