Google is in hot water for sending private information to third parties

Google Play is under fire for releasing personal information to a third party every time you buy an app.

Google Play is different than Apple’s iTunes in that the developers of the app do not receive the buyers name, location and email, reports The Los Angeles Times.

A yoga mobile apps developer, Sebastian Holst, says that consumers purchasing the app don’t know that their information is being shared to a third party.

"Google is not taking reasonable steps to ensure that this data is used correctly," said Holst, whose app has 120,000 users.

Google came back firing, saying that the information is in the Privacy Notice for Google Play.

"Google Wallet shares the information necessary to process a transaction, which is clearly spelled out in the Google Wallet Privacy Notice," Google said.

According to Yahoo, Australian developer Dan Nolan sees this as a problem for consumers.

"I could track down and harass users who left negative reviews or refunded the app purchase," Nolan said on what developers could do with this information.

Search Engine Land's news editor, Barry Schwartz, thinks that developers receiving this information can be a good thing.

"I want to be able to service my customers, and yes, they are my customers, not Google’s and not Apple’s customers,” Schwartz wrote in a blog post. “They download our products. They call the developer with questions.”