Google will soon remove apps from Play Store that ask for call log, SMS permission

After **suspending** 85 adware apps from Play Store earlier this month, Google is now taking down apps that ask for permissions to access call logs and SMS. In a developers blog, Google has announced that “over the next few weeks” it will start taking down any app that asks for these permissions. Though it didn’t specify the date when the app eviction process would commence. In October 2018, Google had sent out emails and notifications to developers saying that in the next 90 days, it will start removing apps from the Google Play Store that ask for SMS or Call Log permission. Now, these 90 days are up. [caption id=“attachment_5504641” align=“alignnone” width=“1024”]  Representational Image.[/caption] Google had also said that developers who use these permissions could either update their app to a version that does not ask for this access or they submit a permission declaration form (basically, developers should be able to explain why their app requires permission to access such sensitive data). The developers that fail to do either till now, will be the ones affected by this rule. Google writes in the blog, “We take access to sensitive data and permissions very seriously. This is especially true with SMS and Call Log permissions, which were designed to allow users to pick their favorite dialer or messaging app, but have also been used to enable many other experiences that might not require that same level of access. "