Category: Google Play Developer

How to fill the data safety section in Google Play Console

Motivation: You have a Google Play application that uses AdMob for displaying ads in order to generate revenue. Google requires you to complete the data safety section. There are many options and you are not sure which options should be selected.

Solution: Select the options below and their corresponding answer.

Does your app collect or share any of the required user data types? Yes
Is all of the user data collected by your app encrypted in transit? Yes
Do you provide a way for users to request that their data is deleted? No

Location > Approximate location
App activity > Page views and taps in app
App info and performance > Crash logs, Diagnostics
Device or other identifiers > Device or other identifiers

Is this data collected, shared, or both? Shared
Is this data processed ephemerally? No
Is this data required for your app, or can users choose whether it’s collected? Data collection is required (users can’t turn off this data collection)
Why is this user data shared? Advertising or marketing

Reference: https://developers.google.com/admob/android/play-data-disclosure

How to avoid losing your Google Play Developer revenue?

Problem:

You went to Google Play Developer Console, then navigated to Settings > Developer account > Payments settings, then clicked on the View transactions button under the Transactions section.

Then you may have gotten a transaction with the Escheated to U.S. state or territory: DE description.

What happened?
The answer is that Google had given your revenue to U.S. state governments.

Clarification:

What is escheatment?

Google’s answer: Companies in the U.S. are obliged to give assets that they believe are abandoned to U.S. state governments. For U.S. residents it’s the state government of the state where you’ve told us you reside. If you reside outside the U.S., then it’s our state of incorporation (Delaware). We consider an account abandoned if there’s been no activity on that account for 2-5 years (depending on your state of residence). Activity on your account means:
– You signed in to your account, and
– You successfully received a payment from your account.

What should I do?
If your balance has been escheated to the state government, you can apply to your state government unclaimed property office to have the money returned to you. You can find your unclaimed property office by typing the name of your state together with “unclaimed property” into Google Search.

How can I avoid having my account balance escheated?
If you have enough of an account balance, then make sure that you’ve met the conditions to get paid. The most common reasons for not getting a payment are:
– You haven’t set up your form of payment, or
– You haven’t submitted your tax information, or
– You have not reached the payment threshold.

Lessons learned:

Set payment threshold to a small number so that you can get paid at least once. Then change it to any value that you want.

Source: https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/6327445?hl=en