On Tuesday, Fast Company published an article revealing that Google had yet to update its iOS apps and had thus not yet published the App Store privacy labels information for its apps. Both that publication and MacTrast speculated that the company was delaying on purpose its privacyreveals.
However, a new TechCrunch report reveals that is not the case. The publication says Google is not taking a stand against the new privacy labels requirement and is planning to add the privacy data to its apps as soon as this week, next week at the latest.
Apple last month introduced a new privacy section in the App Store to inform iOS users about what types of data that apps are tracking or collecting. Developers have been required to include this information when submitting new apps or app updates to the App Store since December 8.
Fast Company had noticed that Google hasn’t updated any of its iPhone and iPad apps since the new requirement went into effect. The search engine giant’s Gmail, Chrome, and YouTube apps were last updated on December 7, 2020, or before that date.
All Google apps still show a “No Details Provided” blurb in the new App Store privacy section. The blurb also includes a note that “the developer will be required to provide privacy details when they submit their next app update.”
It seemed feasible that the search engine firm was delaying any updates to its iOS app lineup to put off revealing its privacy label information. After all, Facebook is getting negative attention for its lengthy “read if you’re trying to get sleepy” privacy labels, and Google’s labels could be equally epic in length.
Although Google has updated several of its Android apps since December 8, including Google Maps on December 14, Google Duo on December 15, Gmail on December 16, and YouTube on December 21. The TechCrunch report suggests the search engine giant’s iOS apps were not updated due to a traditional holiday period code freeze, which the company implements from late December to early January.