Warning of Google Play Developer policy violation: Action Required

Question

I recently received many mails from google for many of my apps.

The email content is:

Hello Google Play Developer,

Our records sho

Answer 1

There is some way to overcome this policy violation. First of all you need to make policy violation file. To do this here is some way:

1. Go to this link: https://app-privacy-policy-generator.firebaseapp.com/

and then provide your app name, developer account name etc then generate your policy file.

2. or you may use this template: https://gist.github.com/alphamu/c42f6c3fce530ca5e804e672fed70d78

   and then just replace app name, developer account etc with yours.

Now how you link up your privacy file:

If you have a own server then you can host the file in your server and use that link. If not then there are some other way to make your work done.

1. You may put your file in git then use that link
2. You also go for a better way, such as just create a docs file in your google drive and then paste your policy text on that and then select File->Publish for the web you will get a link to share just use that link in your policy url.

Hope these will help you.

Answer 2

In my case, old app (deployed on BETA track) was creating problem and console was giving alert for the same.

So check all active apps in all tracks(Beta, Alpha, Internal and Production) for restricted permission groups.

Answer 3

I asked them about what can be the solution and they sent me this email today:

I'm happy to help clarify any questions you have about the privacy policy warning. There are three ways to address this issue:

1- If your app requests user data or makes sensitive permissions requests such as Phone, Accounts, Contacts, Camera, or Microphone, you'll need to add a valid privacy policy in two places: your app's Store Listing page (instructions below) and within your app.

2- As a second option, you can remove any requests for user data or sensitive permissions. For example, you would need to remove the potentially sensitive permissons from the manifest. You will not need to add a privacy policy if you remove these requests.

3- If you cannot complete steps 1 or 2, you'll need to unpublish the app from the Play Store. If your app is already unpublished, you don’t need to take action unless you re-publish the app in the future.

anyway in my application i dont have requests for the mentioned permissions (Camera, Contacts, Microphone ...etc)

I use google Admob in it. And i think it maybe causes the requests for those permissions !!!. I saw also that you are using the google play service ads (admob) in your gradle:

compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads:10.0.1'

Possible Solution: There is a way to remove the permissions in gradle:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.Camera" tools:node="remove" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CONTACTS" tools:node="remove" />

It is not the best solution, we may wait for another better solution but this is what i got till now...

Answer 4

There is a yellow comment near the field privacy policy URL is which permission cause this in your apk.

However from first review of your Manifest READ_PHONE_STATE and GET_ACCOUNTS are definetly permissions that need a policy URL.

Answer 5

You need to add a privacy policy. To add a privacy policy to your store listing:

1. Go to your Google Play Developer Console.
2. Select an app.
3. Select Store Listing.
4. Under "Privacy Policy," enter the URL where you have the privacy policy hosted online.
5. Select Save draft (new apps) or Submit update (existing apps).

Answer 6

confirm Naitik Soni reply. We have "READ_SMS" permission on production track, so we only able to rollout new version without it permission to production.