Google introduced privacy "nutrition labels" for apps on the Play Store last year, offering greater transparency to its Android marketplace. To help users understand what data is obtained by an app, these labels enable developers to clarify and list the various types of information that are gathered, per TechCrunch's report.
Nevertheless, a recent analysis by Mozilla says that top applications' Play Store disclosure labels do not really line up with all the data they gather on users.
Misleading Safety Labels
New research from Mozilla's "Privacy Not Included" series revealed on Thursday, Feb. 23, that popular apps like TikTok and Twitter disclose user data with advertisers, internet service providers (ISPs), and platforms despite saying they do not.
These labels are declared by the apps' developers using a Google Data Safety Form. According to Mozilla's analysis, however, businesses are finding ways around self-disclosures, leading to misunderstandings about the meaning of data labels.
Mozilla said app developers do not have to disclose sharing data with "service providers," a term with a precise meaning under Google's terms and conditions. It also claimed that Google made developers responsible for making truthful claims.
Apparently, at the time of the release, Google said it had carefully inspected these labels using systems and procedures that are continually improving.
Jen Caltrider, Mozilla's Project Lead, expressed her concern about what they discovered.
"When I see Data Safety labels stating that apps like Twitter or TikTok don't share data with third parties, it makes me angry because it is completely untrue. Of course, Twitter and TikTok share data with third parties. Consumers deserve better. Google must do better."
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App Analysis
Mozilla analyzed the most popular free and paid apps to compile this report. There was a spectrum of "poor," "needs improvement," and "OK" rankings.
The research rated 16 of the 40 apps studied, including Twitter, Minecraft, and Facebook, as "poor." The "needs improvement" mark was given to 15 programs, some of the most popular being TikTok, YouTube, Google Maps, and Gmail.
Meanwhile, certain programs skipped filling out the Google Data Safety Form, and these include UC Browser, League of Stickman Acti, and Terraria. If developers have not yet filled out the form, Google says they cannot release an update to their app.
Google's Response
In TechCrunch's report, Google disagreed with Mozilla's results and said the app safety ratings were arbitrary.
"This report conflates company-wide privacy policies that are meant to cover a variety of products and services with individual Data safety labels, which inform users about the data that a specific app collects," the representative said. "The arbitrary grades Mozilla Foundation assigned to apps are not a helpful measure of the safety or accuracy of labels given the flawed methodology and lack of substantiating information."
