FairEmail is bound to return to the Play Store after updating its privacy policy

Google didn’t quite make clear what the issue was initially

FairEmail is one of the more popular open source alternatives to Gmail, having amassed more than 500,000 downloads on the Play Store over the years. Sadly, the app was recently banned from the Play Store with unclear wording from Google, leading the developer to throw in the towel and retire all of his open source apps in frustration. Fans of the service can rejoice, though. After a phone call, the developer and Google were able to clear up the situation, with FairEmail bound to return to the Play Store.

As spotted by Caschys Blog, the developer took to the XDA Forums to explain the progress he was able to make following media coverage of the Play Store ban. On a phone call, a Google representative made clear that the issue the Play Store team took with the app was the lack of adequate disclosures in its privacy policy, which didn’t mention which personal data could potentially be sent to servers and when. The developer has since updated the privacy policy with details on this, and is in the process of submitting an updated app to the Play Store and Github. In contrast to the earlier version, the new privacy policy does seem much more complete, though the developer is asking his community for help to see if it’s really enough.

The developer further shared, “The short term goal is to release a Play store test version (and associated GitHub version) and to get the update approved. I will think about the next steps after this has been accomplished. Given the huge number of supportive messages I received (much appreciated!) the project will be continued in some form in any case.”

It’s great to see that FairEmail is bound to return to the Play Store and that work on it will very likely continue, but Google still needs to fix its moderation practices. The company’s wording suggested that the app was lacking a privacy policy altogether, which wasn’t the case, leading the developer to dismiss errors within it as the culprit. Subsequently submitted releases then didn’t address the main concern, leading to the full ban. In cases like these, Google needs to make it easier for developers to communicate with its policy enforcement team, and formulate which issues there are much clearer.

Right now, you can still only get FairEmail on Github or F-Droid, but it should hopefully soon be available on the Play Store again.