Google Play is removing applications which ask for SMS, Call permissions

Project Strobe, a project which wants to limit Google Play developers from accessing the sensitive user data unnecessarily, comes in action.

Google has informed that it has started a crackdown against all those applications which have not been following the SMS and Call Log permissions. Dubbed name as Project Strobe, the project had been started by Google to limit the developer’s access to the sensitive data and protect the user’s privacy. Google ultimately wants to remove all those applications asking for SMS and Call Log data permission from their users except for a few exceptions.

Only those applications would be allowed access to this data which would be able to justify the request’s need in the following circumstances.

Exceptions:

1. “Likelihood that an average user would understand why this type of app needs full access to the data.
2. “User benefit of the feature.
3. “Importance of the permission relative to the core functionality of the app.
4. “Risks presented by all apps with this use case having access to this sensitive data.
5. “Availability of more narrow alternatives for enabling the feature.”

Google has given three month’s time to the developers so that they can revamp their applications in a way that it abides by to the new privacy rules. After the time period for each of the developer ends, Google would remove all those applications which would ask for user SMS and Call data.

The advocacy for user data privacy is not an old affair. With the ever-rising influx of technology in a common human’s life, the fine line between what data to be read and what strictly not to has gotten blur. Just recently, Facebook came under severe criticism after it allowed Cambridge Analytica, a third-party firm, to access personal data of its users. After the news broke out, Cambridge Analytica shut down and the social media giant issues an apology.

News Via BGR