Violation of Usage of Android Advertising ID with no Analytics or Advertising

Unity Engine
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1

Hi Everyone,

I’ve been trying to search for a reply to the problem I’m having, and found ways to solve it, but I didn’t find any replies that actually explain why it happens.

I got a message from Google about an App I’ve got on the store and later my App got removed.

The App has no advertising whatsoever and does not use analytics either, so I replied to this email explaining that and saying that I believed it must’ve been an error.

So I got the following email:

[quote]*
*[/quote]
*

So, I understand, if I add a privacy policy on the store and inside the App, it will be up again soon. However I’d really rather not have to do that. But even if I have to, I’d like to know what’s actually going on with my app.

I really don’t understand why this is happening as I’m not collecting any data, using no ads and no analytics. Does Unity by default collect this “Android Advertising ID” whenever you build a project with it? If so, does that mean than from now on, absolutely any App I create with Unity will need to include a Privacy Policy saying it uses such things?

Hope someone knows what’s going on…

Thank you.

2

AFAIK the answer is yes if you are using personal and “no one really knows” if you disable everything you can and have plus/pro.

You need to create and add a privacy policy to your app.

3

Well, that sucks… haha. Thanks for the info though :).

4

I’m still confused about something though. I have several Apps on the store. None of which use ads or analytics. They were all built with Unity, so shouldn’t ALL of them require a privacy policy now? However, only 1 of them was taken down. Something is still not really making sense I think…

5

Was your app that got removed, the last app that you updated?
I had the same thing happen to me, and I had released an emergency bug fix for that app a few weeks before it happened.
I have another app that I haven’t updated in 6-7 months and that one did not get removed.

I think it’s either getting in line for some sort of scan when you post an update OR another possibility is that Google is detecting it when an instance of your app crashes.

They might also be scanning everything on their store in a random order.

6

I’m more and more confused every day about this issue. Yesterday just for trying’s sake, I added this link:
Privacy Policy Hub
to the Privacy Policy section at the Play Store. I did not update my app or change anything else and the app is now published again :eyes:.

Does anyone have any insight on this whole process? I’m really lost and can’t seem to get any help from Unity or Google…
The main problem is some of my apps on the store have been developped for clients and I really don’t know what to expect, if they’ll be removed suddenly, and, if they will, how can I prevent it. I still don’t understand the cause for having it removed in the first place or for having it re-accepted now when I just did the most basic thing instead of actually reuploading the app with extra stuff as google seemed to be requesting…

7

I had the same issue. I don’t collect any data or have any ads but got my game removed. Don’t even understand what the fuck the “Android Advertising ID” is. I don’t want to people thinking I collect data when I clearly am not. It’s a huge deterrence… I usually don’t even use apps that ask for this BS. I appealed and got a similar automated message…

8

Have you check [Unity Editor] Window>Package Manager ? Last time I updated to unity 2018.3, these packages : , , , etc… were set up for default; Make sure to remove them if not need and build/submit your app again.
My app was taken down 7 times before, but now it is OK and alive on Play Store.
Yesterday I implemented Unity Ads, so I enabled , still waiting (several days) to see if Google will take me down for that…