Google revealed its newest initiative last week to tighten the security on the Google Play Store.
Expanded developer verification procedures were announced by the company, which is intended to lower the number of new harmful or spam apps in the official Android app store.
Only new developers who currently register for an account with an organisation are impacted by the major change.
A D-U-N-S, or Data Universal Numbering System, number is required for all new registrations. This nine-digit ID is “widely used to verify businesses.”
Google intends to implement the modification for current organisation developer accounts in the future as well.
The company pledges to make information on this available in October 2023. Google states that it is using the IDS, which are granted by Dun & Bradstreet, for developer account verification.
Google may still request more verification throughout the sign-up process.
On August 31, Google plans to begin rolling out the update to new developer accounts of businesses.
Google will release details in October on how current developers can update and validate their accounts.
With the new measures, malicious users will find it more challenging to publish apps or games on Google Play using organisational accounts as a result of the increased criteria. Personal accounts, however, are unaffected by the modification.
