About Google Play's Data Safety section
In May 2021, Google rolled out a new Data Safety Section in the Play Console, where developers must declare their apps' privacy and security practices such as:
Collected data: type of data collected and purposes of the data collection.
Data shared: data collected and communicated with third parties.
Security practices and data handling.
Information provided by developers is shown in your app listing on the PlayStore, allowing final users to know the kind of data your app collects before installing your app.
⚠️ Important note: Developers will be required to fill in the Data Safety form in the Play Console before July 20th, 2022.
Completing the Data Safety form
Important note
Before filling in the questionnaire, please take some time to:
📚 Read the documentation: Make sure you read Batch documentation on the data you are collecting by default via the SDK.
⚙️ Check your integration: Developers can disable part of the data collection or collect additional data if needed. Review your current integration of Batch SDK to be sure you provide the correct information in the Data Safety form.
🔒 Consult your data privacy / legal team: As a data controller, you are responsible for defining the data collected via Batch and the purposes of the data collection. This article only provides basic information on the Data Safety form and must not be considered legal advice.
Starting the questionnaire
First of all, go to the Play Console. Select your project, then scroll down and click "App content" in the left panel. Locate the "Data safety" section and click "Start". The questionnaire is divided into three parts:
Data collection and security
Data types
Data usage and handling
The information provided will be reviewed by Google teams as part of the app review process.
Data collection and security
Questions | Answers related to Batch SDK |
Does your app collect or share any of the required user data types? (see more here on data types) | Yes, data is collected via Batch SDK based on choices made by the developer. |
Is all of the user data collected by your app encrypted in transit? | Yes, data collected via Batch SDK and sent to Batch servers is encrypted in transit. |
Do you provide a way for users to request that their data be deleted? | Yes, data collected via Batch SDK can be deleted. You will find more details on that point in the "Actionable features for GDPR compliance" part of our GDPR compliance article. |
Data types
To help you fill the Data Safety form required by Google, we sorted the data collected by default by Batch using categories provided by Google in their documentation.
Category | Answers related to Batch SDK |
Location | Approximate location: By default, Batch uses IP geolocation to determine approximately the city where users are located.
Precise location: Not collected by default. Only collected if the app uses Batch SDK methods to share precise locations with Batch (see documentation). |
Personal info | Not collected by default.
Only collected if the app uses Batch SDK methods to send user IDs, attributes, etc (see documentation). |
Financial info | Not collected by default.
Only collected if the app uses Batch SDK methods to send data on purchase history (see documentation). |
Health and Fitness | Not collected by default.
Only collected if the app uses Batch SDK methods to send data on fitness habits via attributes or events (see documentation). |
Messages | Other in-app messages: By default, Batch SDK will track user activity related to push notifications and In-App messages for analytics and segmentation purposes:
|
Photo and videos | Not collected. |
Audio files | Not collected. |
Files and docs | Not collected. |
Calendar | Not collected. |
Contacts | Not collected. |
App activity | App interactions: Batch SDK collects some app activity data like lifecycle events, In-App messages interactions, Inbox messages interactions or push opt-in status.
Other data subcategories: Not collected by default. Only collected if the app uses Batch SDK methods to track user interactions (see documentation). |
Web browsing | Not collected. |
App info and performance | Diagnostics: Batch SDK tracks internal metrics on the performance of Batch web services. |
Device or other IDs | Batch SDK generates an anonymous ID the first it starts, the "installation id" (see more here).
Other IDs, attached to the installation, can be collected:
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This article belongs to Batch's FAQ. Need more help? Find insightful articles, documentation, case & market studies, guides, and even more in our website's Resources section on batch.com and our blog.