Play Store “Data Security” may be built into Android 14

Continue our analysis of novelty introduced with the first Developer Preview of Android 14really full of ideas regarding the future of the green robot.

In fact, if on the one hand we have seen how Google points to devices with large screens, it seems that on the other hand it wants to integrate in its next operating system also many functions for security, as in the case of Data security, now entrusted to the Play Store. Let’s find out how.

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If you recall, Data Security was introduced in April of last year in play store to provide you with more clarity and, presumably, transparency the permissions an app requires in order to function.

Remember that this information – what an app collects and why – is based on what it knows developers declare, so it always takes a good deal of trust, but nonetheless it was a step forward towards a better comprehension of the operating dynamics of an app and of the data which we put to her disposition. According to Google itself, in fact, data security provides users with a simplified view of how an app collects, shares and protects data.

Now this page which used to be relegated to app page on play store is coming in Android 14. Mishaal Rahman has posted on XDA an article in which he tells of having managed to enable a new section, called Data privacyon the page Location permission of some apps in the DP1 of Android 14.

This section appears when an app signals to collect location data as part of the Google Play data security module, and specifies that yours position could be shared as the app in question stated that it may share the location with third parties (image below, left).

By touching the text one opens window (image below, center) which lists the reasons provided by the app for collecting location data, and the same window can also be accessed from the authorization request to grant access to an app’s location (image below, right).

This feature is currently limited to position, and we don’t know if it is intentional or if other information will arrive in the future for others categories.

Rahman also managed to find a new one in Android 14 DP1 page of the call settings Data Sharing Updatesunder Settings > Security & Privacy, which allows you to look at apps that have changed the way they share location data.

This section allows you to control when the information sharing data of an app have been modified following an app update, as shown below.

To show this, Rahman created an app called DataSafetyLabelTest and, after installing it, he changed his list of reasons why he uses data about position. According to him, the system reads the data information in an XML file, but also reads app metadata through a new bees, probably crossing them with those of the Play Store.

Another curiosity about this function is that it may not be available on other devices such as Android Automotive, wear os or Android TV/Google TVas there is code that explicitly checks for these operating systems to run and reports that function if necessary Data Sharing Updates not available.

At the moment we don’t know if this section will really be part of the final version of Android 14but in case it would be a step towards the transparency (there are few users who check permissions on the Play Store) and the awareness on the use of their own data.