My app violates the Android Advertising ID policy [duplicate]

Question

Google Play Team has rejected my app because:

The advertising identifier must not be connected to personally-identifiable information or associated with any persistent device identifier (for example: SSAID, MAC address, IMEI, etc.) without explicit consent of the user.

For example, we have identified that your app's attribution SDK enables collection of IMEI from devices which have an Android advertising ID without prominent disclosure, which is a violation of our Android Advertising ID policy.

I'm not collecting the IMEI explicitly so the IMEI must be accessed by one of the dependencies of the app.

How I could detect which one is accessing to the IMEI?

Updated: These are my dependencies

    compile "com.android.support:appcompat-v7:$support_version"
    compile "com.android.support:mediarouter-v7:$support_version"      // I'm using icons from here, like ic_media_pause and such
    compile "com.android.support:recyclerview-v7:$support_version"
    compile "com.android.support:design:$support_version"
    compile "com.android.support:support-compat:$support_version"

    compile 'com.android.support:multidex:1.0.2'

    // individual dependencies -- https://stackoverflow.com/a/43407421/1121497
    compile "com.google.android.gms:play-services-maps:$gms_version"
    compile "com.google.android.gms:play-services-analytics:$gms_version"
    compile "com.google.android.gms:play-services-gcm:$gms_version"
    compile "com.google.firebase:firebase-appindexing:$gms_version"
    compile "com.google.firebase:firebase-core:$gms_version"

    compile "com.facebook.android:facebook-android-sdk:$facebook_version"
    compile 'com.facebook.android:notifications:1.0.2'

    compile 'com.batch.android:batch-sdk:1.11.0'

    compile 'commons-codec:commons-codec:1.9'
    compile 'com.nostra13.universalimageloader:universal-image-loader:1.9.3'
    compile 'com.github.chrisbanes.photoview:library:1.2.2'
    compile 'de.greenrobot:eventbus:2.4.0'
    compile 'info.hoang8f:android-segmented:1.0.5'
    compile 'io.card:android-sdk:5.4.2'
    compile 'me.dm7.barcodescanner:zxing:1.9'
    compile 'com.google.android.exoplayer:exoplayer:r2.2.0'
    compile 'com.squareup.retrofit:retrofit:1.9.0'
    compile 'com.squareup.okhttp:okhttp:2.2.0'

    compile 'io.reactivex:rxandroid:1.1.0'
    compile 'io.reactivex:rxjava:1.1.0'
    //compile 'io.reactivex:rxjava-joins:0.22.0' // to use JoinObservable (and-then-when combinator)

    compile "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk7:$kotlin_version"

    // In libs we have:
    // - ZooZ 1.02 : From https://github.com/Zooz/Zooz-Android/releases/tag/1.02
    // - AppsFlyer : AF-Android-SDK 2.3.1.13 jar
    // - Volley
    compile fileTree(dir: '../libs', include: '*.jar')

    compile('com.crashlytics.sdk.android:crashlytics:2.7.1@aar') {
        transitive = true
    }

Note: AppsFlyer has been configured as:

        AppsFlyerLib.setCollectIMEI(false); // https://play.google.com/about/monetization-ads/ads/ad-id/
        AppsFlyerLib.setCollectMACAddress(false);
        AppsFlyerLib.setCollectAndroidID(false);

Answer 1

My application is also removed by Google. I have done the following method to republish it.

1. Create a privacy policy of application using Free Privacy Policy URL

2. Publish the privacy policy at URL

3. Copy the published privacy policy link and add it in Developer Play Console.
4. Add the privacy policy link in Application also (Optional)

Hope this will help you also.

Answer 2

Crashlytics uses a variety of identifiers to provide their services including the Android ID, and the Android Advertising ID.

So crashlytics lib can be an issue. This lib is dealing with advertising ID. Many of developer getting this warning who are using crashlytics lib and not using AppsFlyerLib. So I think you should also be concern about crashlytics library.

For more clarification you can visit crashlytics security page

Answer 3

You have to add privacy policy on your application.

First, you have to create a privacy policy URL and then add this URL in GOOGLE PUBLISHER CONSOLE based on application. You can easily create privacy policy using this website.

Privacy Policies

If you have a server/host try to upload privacy policy page on your own server otherwise you can use this website for storing.

Mentioned: you have to add this policy page on your application. Create a menu as privacy police and show all your policy content on a dialog. Easiest way