What are the side effects on the playstore if those options are checked as in your example? What limitations may happen, you get excluded from certain search results? Some countries may not be available? Is just an annoyance placebo (like with the cookies Europe gdpr rules that nobody cares about in the end) or google will punish your content if you have those those options up?
If indeed one collect sensitive data from the player, then it should inform the user so he can make a clear decision if he wants to use the app or not but if one doesn’t collect anything then is not a good solution as may limit the app reach
Annoyance placebo I think. I’ve been searching through similar games to mine on Google Play and they ask the same permissions - if not more, so I don’t think this is a problem.
On its Google Play page when I click View Details under Permissions, you get:
Showing permissions for all versions of this app This app has access to: Other
full network access
allow Wi-Fi Multicast reception
view network connections
TBH I can’t remember what it said before. The game has in-app purchases; no subscriptions.
No searches on Google Play but the precise game title make it appear. So no change there. Financially I’m now getting about 3p a month: no harm done.
Google Play keeps rejecting my app even after I “admit” that I collect sensitive information.
(Even though I am not collecting any information at all.)
This is what Google Play says now:
Publishing status: Rejected After review, your app has been rejected and wasn’t published due to a policy violation. Families ad format requirements
Your app contains ads that do not comply with our Families ad format requirements. For example, the following is prohibited:
Ads or offers for in-app purchases that are not clearly distinguishable from your app content: For example, your app contains an ad that is not clearly labeled, or your app contains an ad that is styled similar to the game interface.
Google Play also provided this image: (The two first images is screenshots from my app and the last one is the “problematic add”)
In the last screenshot (the image to the right) is the Unity ads alone and nothing from my app is shown there. The ad starts when you choose a dish from the menu, like clicking on the hotdog.
When you install my game now on Android devices no warnings are displayed, I have tested this on five different ones. Installation is exactly the same as before. Games like mine ask the same permissions and in most cases, more, including storage-related permissions.
Also, my game doesn’t have an in-game privacy policy either: it didn’t need one when I made it and even though I’ve admitted collecting data now it was still re-approved for the PlayStore.
I’m not saying admitting to data collection is a good thing nor that Unity shouldn’t fix it. I just wanted to get my game back back out there.
Our app was actually being rejected because of another apk that we had in the Internal Test Track branch of releases in Google Play. This was an extremely old build that we made before actually releasing the app, to test IAPs and general usage. Update ALL your branches! Test, Alpha, Beta, Production…
It only took 2 months, 10 apk submissions, and countless emails/form fills to Google met with automated and generic responses until a support person FINALLY told us that the rejected build wasn’t the one we were submitting!
Since apparently you can’t delete those apks, what we did was upload our most recent build to Internal Test Track, then promote it to Alpha to overwrite one we had there, and then finally to Production.
Their rejection emails are completely useless. They only tell us we are using the Android ID (we are, explained in the privacy policy) and Advertising ID (we aren’t). Not a single clue that it was another (older) apk.
In our powerlessness, we had already disabled all analytics, updated Unity to 2019.4.1f1, added a privacy policy screen on startup, updated privacy policy to explain our usage of the Android ID (hashed and we use only 5 bytes), moved a microphone permission to a different place, etc. All to no avail.
It. Was. Another. F******. Build.
/endrant
FUN FACT: We have another app that also has an old build in the Internal Test Track and was rejected, but they passed it after we criticized their decision. At the time we had no idea what happened. Now we know. Hooray to reviewers not following the same review process. Same with Apple.
Unity 2017.4.35.f1
Game update - previous game version compiled with the same version of the editor, submitted in February,
PEGI3 - family friendly
No Ads
No in game purchases
I haven’t used any plugins or external packages.
I added the link to rate the game in the appStore, Application.OpenURL to the game rating page in google playstore
Apart from this the game does not using internet at all.
May the link be an issue?
Publishing status: Rejected
Your app has been rejected and wasn’t published due to a policy violation. If you submitted an update, the previous version of your app is still available on Google Play.
Issue: Violation of Families Policy Requirements
We detected that your app collects personal and sensitive information from children, but this was not disclosed in your Play Console. Apps that include children in the target audience must comply with all Families Policy Requirements, which requires that you disclose the collection of any personal and sensitive information in your app, including through APIs and SDKs called or used in your app.
Review the App Content > Target audience and content section in your Play Console. Be sure to disclose the collection of personal information in this section. And, if applicable, you must collect verifiable parental consent before collecting any personal and sensitive information from children.
Before submitting, make sure that your app is compliant with all other Developer Program Policies. Additional enforcement could occur if there are further policy violations.
Select Store presence > Store listing and click Resubmit app.
I fixed the issue as per CanisLupus advice. I said that game collects some information (in the playstore and explained in the privacy policy:
What information do we collect?
Data collected by Unity Engine
Application is made with Unity Engine engine the engine can collect standard data, please see below paragraph from Unity Privacy Policy:
I play a game built with Unity software, what should I know?
Unity has collected some or all of the following information about your device: unique device identifiers (e.g., IDFV for iOS devices and Android ID for Android devices); IP address; country of install (mapped from IP address); device manufacturer and model platform type (iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, etc.) and the operating system and version running on your system or device; language; CPU information such as model, the number of CPUs present, frequency, and instruction set support flags; the graphics card type and vendor name; graphics card driver name and version (e.g., “nv4disp.dll 6.10.93.71”); which graphics API is in use (e.g., “OpenGL 2.1” or “Direct3D 9.0c”); amount of system and video RAM present; current screen resolution; version of the Unity Editor used to create the game; sensor flags (e.g., device support for gyroscope, touch pressure or accelerometer); application or bundle identification (“app ID”) of the game installed; unique advertising identifiers provided for iOS and Android devices (e.g., IDFA or Android Ad ID); and a checksum of all the data that gets sent to verify that it transmitted correctly.
@LOSTSOUL86 Hi, could you tell me where did you put this whole text ? On the store page description ?
They only accept a single link in the privacy policy field.
In the rejection mail they keep sending me, they joined a screenshot of the start of this page : Privacy Policy Hub so I’m guessing it’s not good enough anymore, probably too vague as it is.
I have the same problem, I tried to publish using my app that contains Firebase Analytics, then I remove this plugin and I still have the reject. I use Unity 2019.1.8f1
@JeffDUnity3D Any update about this ? Is this fixed on v2019.4.9f1 or v2020.1.3f1 ?
Same problem with version 2019.4.14.f1. I’m only using Unity’s IAP package (and handicapped Unity analytics just to make the IAP work). Got approved by Apple in their “Designed for Kids/Families (or whatever)” program, but Google keeps rejecting it saying that we’re collecting Advertising ID and Device ID.
Obviously that’s a problem with the engine. I’ve checked everything with Charles, went through every possible guide (hence approved by Apple after some trial and error).
I can’t contact Unity’s support on this either, since they don’t do technical stuff and won’t help me to remove DeviceID calls from Unity’s binary output. I thought a Pro license would cover that.
I really need some support.
The game has in-app purchases; no subscriptions.
