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Google to Restrict Certain Apps from Accessing Other Apps' Data

Not many people know about it, but smartphone apps can easily access the data from other installed apps. This way, some of the suspicious apps can easily read your bank-related information from different apps. Moreover, these apps can also access your passwords stored in another app.


Now, Google has announced that they will change their Play Store policy from May 2021. According to a report, Google will ask all app developers which data they want to use from other apps installed on the smartphone. Moreover, they will also have to declare the specific reasons for accessing that data.

Currently, the apps on Android 11 which request permission for "Query_All_Packages" can easily view all application data from a user's phone. Looking into that concern, Google has decided to revise the Developer Programme Policy. This revision will restrict the app developers from accessing sensitive data.


Google said that the apps requiring data access from other apps could request for scope-appropriate visibility. Banking-related applications have certain expectations so that they can obtain some broad visibility for security-related issues.


If an app developer asks for a "Query_All_Packages" permission, he/she will have to declare this on Google Play Console. After that, Google will decide the license only if the developer's application meets the policy requirement.


The applications that will fail to meet the policy requirement will not access other app's data. Moreover, if a developer does not fill the declaration form on Google Play, he will not get the required access. Also, Google will remove these types of apps from Play Store.


Google also declared that the deceptive or non-declared use of this permission could lead to the app's suspension. Moreover, it can also result in the complete termination of the developer's account.


Google said that the developers who need their apps to use other application's data would have to use app-discovery API. In that way, they will not require to pull the entire list of apps.

Android 11 has introduced the "Query_All_Packages" permission. Therefore, it is applied to the apps that want to target the Android 11 API level, called "API Level 30".


These new restrictions will also apply to all apps that want to target API Level 30 or above. Therefore, it will not affect a lot of applications as of now. It is a piece of good news for Android users who keeps raising concerns about data security.

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