Google Play: Privacy in Danger According to a Developer

News is emerging at this time regarding the use of the Google Play Store that will certainly not please all users concerned about privacy management.
According to Dan Nolan, an Australian developer, when a user purchases and downloads an application, the developer automatically receives the buyer’s personal data.
Name, surname, email address, physical address, and all associated information – online and through Google products – related to that person automatically become known to whoever published the chosen app on the Google Play Store.
The case has made headlines precisely because a developer noticed it and decided to share this “discovery” on his blog.
However, it should be noted that Google has done nothing that was not explicitly provided for by the Google Play Store terms of service: in the contract that users agree to in order to access the system and download applications, Google indeed states that personal data may be communicated to developers to “allow for the processing of user transactions and/or the offering of Content to the user“.
Furthermore, Google also advises – still within the contractual terms – that developers should use all acquired information “in compliance with privacy regulations“.

Therefore, Google lays out the issue concerning personal data management in black and white, but at the same time entrusts these important pieces of information to the developers’ common sense.
The only valid advice for users, since Google is acting in complete legal compliance, is to carefully evaluate the “parentage” of the app they are choosing: if it concerns practically unknown developers or applications rated very negatively by other users, it is advisable to consider that they might be dealing with someone solely seeking sensitive data.
Naturally, this is not the rule, but if the app is not a valid and well-developed product, the creator’s purpose might likely be something else.