Google introduces an innovation in its application store (Google Play) in which applications placed there by government institutions or related entities are accompanied by a new signature: Government.
The signature is accompanied by a building icon, which indicates that the application has undergone additional verification. After clicking the icon, Google Play displays a notification with a brief explanation: Official Government – Play has verified that this app is affiliated with a government entity.
The new method of marking government applications has been made available, on a trial basis, to users residing in the following twelve countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States. Google’s IT specialists have been testing this feature for several months and during this time have added the government mark to more than three thousand applications known to have been created or approved by the governments of the countries mentioned above.
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Google is also encouraging government institutions to use their official email addresses when creating accounts for their associated developers, which will make it easier to verify the apps they create. It also says that more sensitive apps (such as those that support the voting process or are used to verify identity) require additional verification before they are officially recognized as government apps. Additional guidance on this mechanism is available here.
