How to fix "Violation of Families Policy Requirements" on Google Playstore

Question

My free app directed at children from (0-5) just got rejected from Google Play in its last update. It is not released yet, I'm only releasing internal tests. The issue is the following:

"Issue: Violation of Families Policy Requirements

We have detected that your app collects personal information, however, it was not disclosed in your Play Console. Apps that include children in the target audience must comply with all Families Policy Requirements, which requires that you disclose the collection of any personal information from children in your app, including through APIs and SDKs called or used in your app. "

My app does not contain any ads but instead it has a single IAP (non-consumable) which unlocks the full game. I am using a middleware called Construct 3 to make it and also GameAnalytics to record events such as game completed, errors, etc.

The Required permissions are the following:
android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE, android.permission.INTERNET, android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE, android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE, com.android.vending.BILLING

So I am not sure what the problem is, to be honest, and I am a bit confused. The mail I received mentioned doing the following:

"Review the App Content > Target audience and content section in your Play Console and be sure to accurately disclose the collection of personal information. And if applicable, you must collect verifiable parental consent before collecting any personal information from children."

So I tried and the only thing regarding the collection of personal information is what they refer to as PII (personal identifiable information). However, I don't collect any personal identifiable information as far as I know unless it's because of GameAnalytics SDK?

Example of fake data I get on GameAnalytics:

{arrival_ts:23:06, country_code:US, data:{android_app_build:3600, android_app_signature:fdg46g465dfg45d4fg654dfg64g, android_app_version:0.0.36, android_bundle_id:com.test.test, android_channel_id:com.android.vending, build:0.0.36, category:session_end, client_ts:45464654, connection_type:wwan, device:Pixel 3, google_aid:dbf5e8ab-488a-4152-afb1-dfgdf556, length:1196, manufacturer:Google, os_version:android 9, platform:android, sdk_version:construct 2.2.3, session_id:c8e3d86c-8519-42f7-a3b4-6465dfgdgf, session_num:32, user_id:dbfdfggfdab-488a-4152-afb1-df45dfg, v:2}, first_in_batch:true, game_id:78269, ip:182.19.58.0}

If anyone has some idea where to look at, that would be really appreciated. This my post on Stack Overflow, so if it does not have this place here sorry.

Answer 1

We experienced this problem with 2 apps:

• First App: I received a message saying that my update was rejected because of the violation on the Family program alleging that it was crashing or giving an error (pretty generic message without any detail at all), I enter in contact on the support form and they send an email asking for me to read the terms and to update my APK number and submit again, I read the terms, I already had complied with everything so I replied saying that, we already comply with everyhting and we tested the APK and OBB installation and game play, all good, please send more details, they replied copying and pasting the same message, I once more insisted and asked for them to explain the problem, they replied asking for update my APK version and submit again, I said this will solve no crashes, please explain what is the problem and the support called Sara highlighted in the message asking to update the APK version, kind of talking with a machine that do not responded what I asked, but I updated my APK version, submitted again and... Worked. Why? For some reason they will not explain, my guess is they just marked my APK as dirty as an attempt to remove apps that the developers don't update, there's no other logical thing I can think off.

• Second App: This one I didn't had a happy end as the previous one, I tried the technique of updating the APK version 6 times, none worked, I asked help on the form (many times), they just copy and paste the message about read the Terms, I started to insist for some details, provided them with many proves that my APK+OBB files sent to Google Play are working fine, and asked for any clue about this "problem", like a device model and Android Version that they experienced it (isn't the minimum they suppose to provide us?) but after requesting this many times, for the first time the support guy called Arthur didn't copied and pasted and finally wrote an email, his answer was:

Hi Developer,

Thanks again for contacting the Google Play Team.

As much as I'd like to help, due to policy, I’m not able to provide any more information or a better answer to your question. In our previous email, I made sure to include all the information available to me.

If you have a different question about Google Play policies, please let me know.

Regards, Arthur The Google Play Team

It means, he has no information at all about what is the problem, I've trying to solve this for 2 months, our flagship game is threatened of been removed from the store and they can't even explain why, the support team can just copy and paste a generic message without any understanding of our problem and we have no other channel to ask for help.

I'm really disappointed with Google for such poor support for developers.

Hope you can solve your problem updating your APK and submitting again, otherwise you can enter on the same loop as me.

Good luck!