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Google Store Sends User Information To App Developers
Several readers have passed on news of a privacy hole in the Google app store. Reader Strudelkugel writes with the news.com.au version, excerpting: "Every time you purchase an app on Google Play, your name, address and email is passed on to the developer, it has been revealed today. The 'flaw' — which appears to be by design — was discovered this morning by Sydney app developer Dan Nolan who told news.com.au that he was uncomfortable being the custodian of this information and that there was no reason for any developer to have this information at their finger tips."
If this were the iOS or Windows Phone stores, then yes, that would be true. But with Google Play, the developer actually IS the merchant. The Play Store itself is only an intermediary. The system is setup like any other online store where there are "ordered" and goods are "shipped". Blame the fact that Google basically grafted the paid Android store onto a system that was meant for real-world goods. Honestly though, this isn't news. Every Android developer has known this for YEARS. And this is no different than any other online store out there.
Wait, this is new? I released my first paid app in November, and the only information you get is email, zipcode/city and name. I've been using the zipcode information to put pins in a map to see everywhere in the world I've sold to, heh.
This is simply not true. Stupid as it may seem, Google has set up the Play store so that they are merely the "card processor". I agree that it seems a bit of a stretch, but that's the way it is. As such, the app developer really is the merchant. That's why you get receipts (via google checkout) from Joe Bloggs LLC rather than from Google itself.
You do get name, city name, and zip... you do not get an address. That's simply false.
Imagine if you weren't allowed to use roads because a bus company complained about your driving 3 times. --skunkpussy
I am a Google Play developer. I have noticed that I get the names, email, and location of the purchases. This does not include the address though. Only the town, zip, and country. I have looked back at old records and see the email address listed in the purchase records, but I seem to recall this being obscured previously. Unless I am mistaken in some way, it used to give a long apparently randomly created email address for each purchase. I had assumed that this would forward or link to their real email address through Google's records of the purchase, but it looks like they did away with that and now just have your email address listed in the purchase record.
Personally, I find no reason to have the email address. There is nothing I would want to contact them about. But the sales are in a more general form. It's actually Google Checkout that does the sales for the Google Play store. You could sell knitted sweaters through your Google Checkout account and the shipping and delivering and returns are all a part of the processing procedures. When someone cancels a Play purchase, the entry has a notice to me that I should not ship the product to them. This is even though it is an Android App that Google itself handles all the delivery of. So I can see why some contact with the buyer might be necessary in some cases, but not with a typical Play store purchase.
<Rant Begin> The people I would really like to be able to contact would be the ones who leave stupid reviews. "One Star - It really needs so and so feature!" Hey dumbass - it has that feature! Of course I am much more polite with my real communications to bug reports and such, but it amazes me how many people don't even pay attention to the hints, instructions, and preferences that I have given to make sure they see what they can change. <Rant End>
-- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
and voluntarily pipes all of it to various 3 letter agencies in the U.S
Bull. Fucking. Shit.
Google only hands over data when legally required to and documents complied requests publicly: http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/userdatarequests/
And FYI, every web server logs every request you make - that's web server admin 101.
I have free apps in the Play store - and have *never* recieved customer information about those apps. Never. The customer info is only for paid apps, to facilitate tax collection.