Google updates the Play Store policy and will close inactive developer accounts

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Google recently released a new set of Play Store policies, which updated the policies on security, privacy, advertising, etc.

One of the important upcoming changes for developers is that Google will close inactive Play Store developer accounts “if the account is inactive or abandoned after a year.”
“inactive” refers to developers who have never uploaded an app or visited the Play Console in a year. If the application bound to the developer account has been installed more than 1000 times or in-app purchases have occurred in the past 90 days, then Google will not close the developer account of the Play Store application.

Google Play Store’s Material Theme

Google believes that when developers actively maintain their applications, Google Play is still a safer ecosystem. In order to prevent various bugs and security issues caused by the application’s disrepair, Google made such policy changes. This new policy will take effect on September 1, 2021.

Developers whose accounts have been closed can re-create new accounts when necessary in the future, but they will not be able to reactivate their old accounts, nor can they restore applications or data.

In addition, in this policy update, Google will also strengthen the privacy protection of users. After the policy is updated, when a user opts out of interest-based advertising or personalized advertising, the user’s advertising ID will be deleted and replaced by a string of 0s. Even if the application obtains the user’s advertising ID through special means, the data obtained will be Invalid. The changes to Google Play will be rolled out in phases, starting at the end of 2021, affecting devices running Android 12, and expanding to all Android devices in early 2022.

Many system automation, launchers, and screen recording tools on Android devices require access to the device. In the new policy, Google will add new requirements on how to use AccessibilityService API and IsAccessibilityTool. These applications that need to use the AccessibilityService API need to disclose data access and purpose in the Google Play Console and obtain approval.

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