Google finally adds app privacy tags to Gmail app

Google today quietly added App Privacy Labels to its Gmail app, which is the first of its major apps to receive the privacy details besides YouTube.

Although app privacy information has been added to Gmail, Google has done the server side and has not yet released an update to the Gmail app. It’s been two months since the last update of the Gmail app.

Earlier in February, the Gmail app showed alerts that the app was no longer outdated, as new security features had been added for a long time, but Google removed the messages without pushing an update to the app.

Apple has been applying App Privacy Labels since December, and Google is slow to support the feature. Google said in early January that it would add “privacy data” to its app catalog “this week or next week,” but by January 20, most apps had not yet been updated with the App Privacy.

Google has since added app privacy labels to apps like YouTube and some of its smaller apps, but of major apps like Google Search, Google Photos and Google Maps, Gmail is the first to get the new label.

There is nothing very unexpected in the privacy information of Gmail App, with Google listing, user ID and usage data as information shared with third-party advertisers. Purchases, location, contact information, user content, search history, identifiers and usage data are used for analysis purposes, product customization and application functions.

Although most Google programs have gone without an update for months, and still need updating, programs like Google Translate, Google Tasks, YouTube Music, and YouTube TV have been updated with new content and bug fixes. However, these apps were quietly updated with App Privacy labels before updating their contents.

Now that Gmail App has privacy tags in place, we’ll soon be able to see the information available for other Google apps, and Google may resume the regular updates offered for iOS apps before Apple launches the new rules.