Exploring the Effectiveness of Google Play Store's Privacy Transparency Channels

With the requirements and emphases on privacy transparency placed by regulations such as GDPR and CCPA, the Google Play Store requires Android developers to more responsibly communicate their apps' privacy practices to potential users by providing the proper information via the data safety, privacy policy, and permission manifest privacy transparency channels. However, it is unclear how effective those channels are in helping users make informed decisions in the app selection and installation process. In this article, we conducted a study for 190 participants to interact with our simulated privacy transparency channels of mobile apps. We quantitatively analyzed (supplemented by qualitative analysis) participants' responses to five sets of questions. We found that data safety provides the most intuitive user interfaces, privacy policy is most informative and effective, while permission manifest excels at raising participants' concerns about an app's overall privacy risks. These channels complement each other and should all be improved.