Google Play rejected app update because of handling users' Phone Number information from READ_PHONE_STATE permissions without a prominent disclosure

Meeting SDK
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My team and I have an issue when submitting a new version of app on Google Play. We got rejected due to the issue “Phone number from READ_PHONE_STATE permission” without prominent disclosure. 2 things I want to know:

  1. When should we request READ_PHONE_STATE permission at runtime ?
  2. If user denies permission, should we stop user’s video call session ?
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@trinhcu18 ,

An incoming phone call will occupy the Bluetooth audio device when it occurs during an ongoing session. After the call ends, the session does not receive the Bluetooth audio device back. Therefore, the READ_PHONE_STATE permission allows us to reconnect to the Bluetooth audio device after a phone call ends. We are not using the user’s phone number in any way.

Thanks!
Boon Jun.

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Hi @boonjun.tan ,

Thanks for your reply, it’s much appreciated.

Fortunately, our application has already been approved by the Google Play team.

For anyone who has the same matter, I would like to explain how we resolved it

We added a prominent disclosure dialog explaining why we need READ_PHONE_STATE permission

If an incoming phone call occurs during an ongoing Zoom meeting session, the READ_PHONE_STATE permission allows us to reconnect to the Bluetooth audio device after a phone call ends

and do not use users’ phone numbers. The dialog must be shown as soon as a user logins and one more time after the user opens the Zoom meeting screen (only if the user hasn’t allowed the READ_PHONE_STATE permission yet).
We also had to record our app flow and sent the video to the Google Policy Team to prove that we do show the prominent closure dialog to users before requesting the READ_PHONE_STATE permission.

Hope our information is helpful.

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