Although Google has promised to update its suite of apps with app privacy tags to comply with the App Store rules that Apple began enforcing in December, many of its major apps have gone months without an update and still haven’t contain information about privacy.
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It’s been so long since Google last updated Gmail that Gmail now displays a warning that the latest security features aren’t available. As discovered by the publisher Techmeme Spencer Dailey, when you access a new account in the Gmail app for iOS, it warns you that you should update and suggests continuing to sign in only “if you understand the risks”.
Unfortunately, there are no updates available for Gmail. Gmail version 6.0.201115 is the only version of Gmail available on iPhone and iPad and has not been updated since December 1st.
Google said on Jan. 5 that it would add privacy data to the “this week or next week” app catalog, but as of Jan. 20, most apps haven’t been updated with app privacy tags yet.
Since then, Google has quietly added tags to apps like YouTube, but major apps like Gmail, Google Search, Google Photos, Google Maps and more still don’t have privacy details. Even in applications that won with tags, there were mostly no feature or security updates.
It’s still unclear why Google wants so much to add app privacy tags to its iOS apps, and it’s not yet known when Gmail will receive an update. Google has regularly updated its Android apps, and the latest update to the Android Gmail app was released on February 9th.
It has been speculated that Google is reluctant to provide privacy label data due to negative feedback from other companies such as Facebook, but there is no confirmed explanation yet.
App privacy tags are required from iOS 14.3 and are designed to give customers details about what data an app collects from them, so they can make an informed choice when opting to install an app. Application developers are required to self-report confidential information in the “Application Store”, and developers must identify all cases of data collection and use.
Update: Google has introduced a server-side update that removes outdated warning when trying to sign in to a new account in Gmail.