Collected vs Shared: The Data Safety Distinction That Trips People Up

Google Play's Data Safety form separates "collected" from "shared" for a reason: they have different consequences and different disclosure obligations. Collected means the data leaves the device at all. Shared means a third party outside your app or its processors gets it for their own purposes.

An ad SDK that uses your users' device ID to serve ads on behalf of its own network is a shared case. Your own crash reporting tool, even if hosted by a vendor, is typically collected-not-shared, since the vendor is processing on your behalf.

The fix

Fix: for every SDK, ask "does this vendor use the data for anything besides serving my app," not just "does data leave the device."

The same check runs automatically when you upload your bundle to the AAB analyzer — permissions, SDK fingerprints, and version info in one pass, free.

Keep going

Data Safety generator →

Turns these answers into a Play-ready CSV.

Data Safety guide →

The full method behind the checks.

Short, specific submission fixes.

Run this check on your own AAB

Free analysis, exports when you need them.

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