Recently, Google has announced Project Strobe that will limit third-party access to user data. Following the project, only default clients over Android smartphones will be allowed to request SMS or Call Log permissions. Google also shared that it will now remove all the Play Store apps that will violate the policies of the Project Strobe.
There have been reports that Google in response to the Google+ privacy bug is planning to limit the SMS and Call Log permissions on Android smartphones. Doing so will prevent data leaks from users as it will restrict certain features of the app, but users can still use third-party clients.
“Our new policy is designed to ensure that apps asking for these permissions need full and ongoing access to the sensitive data to accomplish the app’s primary use case and that users will understand why this data would be required for the app to function,” said Google in one of the statements.
One of the officials from Google mentioned that the company has already contacted all the Android developers via email and has provided a deadline of 90 days to make their apps compliant, or request an exception. As per the compliance extension, developers can work on updates until March 9th, the official shared.
The tech giant also shared that “Tens of thousands of developers” following the compliance extension have either updated apps to support the new policy or have requested an extension for the same. Google is also making sure that the apps which are developed by the company itself should fall under the same criteria, with the review process for an exception.
On the other hand, the Android apps that are found violating the policies and have not requested extensions will be removed from the Play Store over the next few weeks, say reports.
