Government Apps Get Verified on Google Play Store

Government apps will now appear with labels to indicate that they are actually affiliated with a government entity. This is a move by Google that has been in testing for months since the announcement in late 2023, in a bid to keep users protected by exposing fakes.

The malicious things that could be done with one's data are countless, especially in this age of generative AI, where we have deepfakes flying around as these AI models improve and become more and more accessible with time. And, also, private and crucial financial passkeys put information in the wrong hands.

So, it does make sense that Google will implement a move that'll help people make better decisions when installing apps on the Play Store. It's about time, in fact. They rolled out the feature a few days ago, and it's functional in fourteen countries.

Over 2,000 apps now have these badges in countries like Canada, Australia, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, South Korea, the United States, Brazil, India, Indonesia, and Mexico.

Right around the description of the government app, users can click on the badge and find the Play Store display a message like, "Play verified this app is affiliated with a government entity." The badge will also appear in Play Store lists like Top Charts.

This isn't the first time Google is fighting against malicious behaviour on the Play Store, however. The Play Store already rejects apps with false descriptions, misleading icons, or screenshots, especially those pretending to be official apps. These violations, for example, are part of their behavioural concord against deception.

"We don't allow apps that attempt to deceive users or enable dishonest behavior including but not limited to apps which are determined to be functionally impossible. Apps must provide an accurate disclosure, description and images/video of their functionality in all parts of the metadata. Apps must not attempt to mimic functionality or warnings from the operating system or other apps. Any changes to device settings must be made with the user's knowledge and consent and be reversible by the user." Google says in their rule about deceptive behaviour.

For additional safety, Google also asks developers to provide enough proof that they have adequate permission to handle government information or documents. And they also advise the government to use official email IDs for the accounts of their developers on Google Play when listing apps.

An excellent and innovative solution to cleaning up the Play Store and keeping it safe for users. We can only hope that they roll out this feature to more countries world-wide and partner with more governments to expand the effect of this new protection policy.

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