Google is now attaching government badges on official apps in its Play Store
These government badges will stop the development of fake official apps that steal private data and other sensitive information.
Google Play Store users no longer need to worry about fake government apps stealing or misusing their data because Google has just revealed that it is rolling out badges on official government apps in more than 14 countries. It first teased this feature back in November 2023.
These badges are on over 2,000 apps in countries such as Australia, Canada, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, the United States, Brazil, Indonesia, India, and Mexico.
Henry Chikwem
Once you search for official government apps on Google Play, you will see a list of apps with government badges. If you tap on any of the badges, a display will pop up with a message saying, "Play verified this app is affiliated with a government entity."
This is a highly innovative solution to clean up the Play Store of late, especially for places like India where fake central and state government apps are popping up on the Play Store to dupe people at an all-time high.
Google confirmed that to achieve this, it had to partner with governments and their app developers to onboard apps with badges. It also advised that governments use official email IDs to create developer accounts on Google Play whenever they want to publish apps.
Hopefully, we can expect Google to partner with more governments and extend this feature to more countries globally, especially in African countries where fake apps and phishing scams are prevalent.
