Disclosure Divergence: Measuring Privacy Policy and Data Safety Misalignment at Scale

Jul 17, 2026

A large-scale study of 6,051 Android apps reveals significant inconsistencies between privacy policies and Google Play Data Safety labels, particularly for sensitive data types such as personal information and device identifiers. The research finds that sharing disclosures are less consistent than collection disclosures, and that apps involving persistent monitoring and communication present higher privacy risks. The study introduces a sensitivity-weighted risk score to better assess these misalignments.

Why it matters: This work exposes structural weaknesses in current privacy disclosure mechanisms, highlighting the need for improved verification and transparency in app data practices.

Full story at: arXiv Cryptography and Security ↗