All of Google’s Main Apps Now Feature Privacy Labels

Four months after Apple first began requiring apps to add App Privacy labels to their App Store listings, Google has finally updated all of its most popular apps with the information, letting people know exactly what data Google is collecting.

Google began adding App Privacy labels to its apps in February after months of delaying. Gmail, for example, got App Privacy labels on February 22, and other apps have been slowly updated over time.

Google Maps was quietly updated with privacy information last week, and as noted by The 8-Bit, Google today updated its last main app with App Privacy details, adding the information to Google Photos.

As a consequence of taking so long to add App Privacy labels, many of Google’s apps went months without an update. Apple began enforcing App Privacy labels on December 8, and any new app or app update submitted after that time had to include the information.

Back in February, it had been two months since Gmail was updated, and the app started giving users a warning that it was out of date and should be updated, but there was, of course, no update available. Gmail was finally updated on March 1.

Though Google ‌Photos‌ and Google Maps now have App Privacy labels, the apps still have yet to be updated. It’s been four months since Google Maps and Google ‌Photos‌ got bug fixes or new features, which is highly unusual as Google typically pushes regular updates.

It’s not clear why Google delayed adding App Privacy labels to its apps for so long as it isn’t exactly a surprise that the company is collecting quite a bit of data from users. Google Maps, for example, uses coarse location, search history, browsing history, identifiers, and usage data for third-party advertising purposes, with Google Search using much of the same information.

All of the data that Google is collecting is now listed in the ‌App Store‌ for each individual app for those who are interested.