The Play Data safety declaration

The Data safety section is a declaration about what your app collects and shares. Play checks it against observed behaviour, so the failure mode is not an incomplete form — it is a form that disagrees with the app.

The SDK problem

Most mismatches come from code you did not write. An analytics, advertising or crash-reporting SDK collects an identifier you never declared, because you were declaring what your code does. The declaration covers everything the app does, including its dependencies.

Collected and shared are different

Collected means it leaves the device. Shared means it goes to a third party. An SDK that sends data to its own servers is both, and declaring only collection is a common and avoidable mismatch.

Apple's equivalent

Apple's App Privacy labels ask the same question in a different shape, and the two are compared against the same app. Answering them inconsistently invites a rejection on whichever store you submit to second.

Where this comes from: these Play checks come from rejections and warnings measured on our own submissions, not only from the documentation.

Source: Apple App Privacy nutrition label under App Review Guideline 5.1.1; Google Play Data safety section requirement, verified 2026-09-15