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Google terminated our business via our Google Play Developer Account

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Re: Google terminated our business via our Google Play Developer Account

#111

Post by Melchizedek »

bdibs wrote: post #50

I actually just got my Google Ads account suspended because I forgot to update my billing address before adding a new card. The suspension was for "suspicious billing activity", tried appealing twice with the correct billing address, and was told the suspension is final (some automated email) both times. They won't take my calls because the account is suspended, which leaves me not being able to advertise on the #1 s…

We really need tech monopolies like Google to be regulated, in order to stop abuses like this.

Re: Google terminated our business via our Google Play Developer Account

#112

Post by avip »

noonespecial wrote: post #27

The question I always have with this stuff is this: To attract developers, these platforms make some promises. A "review" process for supposed violations of TOS causing cancellations is always among them. But to me these "reviews" always seem either completely faked or some version of a lowest-level employee simply restating that the algo has made its choice and they are powerless. More incriminating is that every ti…

So says you. This is what the ToS say:

Google may terminate this Agreement with You for any reason with thirty (30) days' prior written notice. In addition, Google may, at any time, immediately suspend or terminate this Agreement with You if: (a) You have breached any provision of this Agreement, any non-disclosure agreement or other agreement relating to Google Play or the Android platform; (b) Google is required to do so by law; (c) You cease to be an authorised developer, a developer in good standing, or are barred from using Android software; or (d) Google decides to no longer provide Google Play.

https://play.google.com/intl/ALL_uk/about/developer-distribu...

Re: Google terminated our business via our Google Play Developer Account

#113

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

noonespecial wrote: post #58
dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The review money is ridiculously small when compared to the investment they made.

I would assume if they could show that they depended on the promise made by the "supplier (google)" when they purchased the fraudulent good, the supplier would be liable for damages as well. Sort of like if I sold someone "aircraft grade aluminum" and then delivered compacted used soda cans and they actually did try to build a plane from it resulting in a crash.

That's assuming that someone associated with the developers actually did something wrong. For all we know, it could have been a mistake, a misinterpretation of some activity by Google's algorithms etc. - we'll never know because the lack of transparency gives Google advantage, and they're not legally required to provide any information on that.

That's why I think it's in the best interests of everyone to support alternatives like Librem, so that no single entity can make such kind of decisions.

Re: Google terminated our business via our Google Play Developer Account

#115

Post by deogeo »

mproud wrote: post #69

I don’t buy the guy’s analogy of crime and association. If you willingly lend the keys to your truck to someone else, and he or she commits a crime while using the vehicle, it might get impounded. Know the people whom you work with, or just do the work yourself.

A better analogy is you unknowingly hire someone who was once convicted, in a secret trial, of a 'crime'.

You are then jailed, without being informed who the incriminating hire was.

Re: Google terminated our business via our Google Play Developer Account

#116

Post by manigandham »

swagonomixxx wrote: post #66

Another one of these aspiring app developers bites the dust. I have some advice to such developers - work on making a good web app. You automatically reach more platforms than just the two big ones, and you won’t have to deal with too big to fail corporations taking you down.

Most consumers want real apps, not webapps, and mobile browsers don't make webapps easy to launch and use either.

Re: Google terminated our business via our Google Play Developer Account

#117

Post by fareesh »

munchbunny wrote: post #71
fareesh wrote: post #32

Is it unfair to form a poor opinion of Google because it's typical for people to only ever share bad experiences? Anecdotally I feel like I have come across so many of these stories, and each of them sound terrible / symptomatic of a broken/apathetic company. It feels like the money keeps rolling in through ad revenues, and then spent on developing projects like Inbox, Reader, and 5 chat apps, all of which get discon…

I think it's interesting to note that Google seems to come up much more often for Kafkaesque customer support problems. That's not a rigorous scientific statement, but it's fairly consistent with my own experience dealing with Google as a startup. Unless you have a back channel via an employee you know, it's next to impossible to get any non-automated, human judgement on your situation. The part I don't get is... whe…

> The part I don't get is... where in Google leadership does this issue get lost on the company's priorities? Of all of the rational explanations I can come up with, it feels like someone looks at the data and either says "nah we don't lose much money from this" or "nah it's not a real problem". Is that actually true?

Could it be something to do with company culture? Something like "if we solve a hard problem by assigning a human to it then we have admitted failure as a technology company". It's a lofty goal but it comes at the cost of betraying the trust of partners/customers when things break, and they seem to break often. Someone in management really ought to be weighing those two things side by side (assuming the cultural thing I mentioned even exists).

Re: Google terminated our business via our Google Play Developer Account

#118

Post by ohiovr »

ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #20
flibble wrote: post #3

Sounds like a bad situation. If I were you I would simply change the app ID, create a new Play account and publish it there. If there problem is with the connection to a banned account and not the app, then this removes that problem/connection.

Do NOT do this. Google will then ban all your accounts including Gmail, drive and ads as creating an account to circumvent their ban is really dangerous. This ban is lifetime unfortunately and you or related accounts are not allowed on Google ever.

Did at&t or bell telephone have the absolute power to keep you off of the phone network? There is no way that they could technically or realistically. Yet google can do both.

Re: Google terminated our business via our Google Play Developer Account

#119

Post by skybrian »

noonespecial wrote: post #27

The question I always have with this stuff is this: To attract developers, these platforms make some promises. A "review" process for supposed violations of TOS causing cancellations is always among them. But to me these "reviews" always seem either completely faked or some version of a lowest-level employee simply restating that the algo has made its choice and they are powerless. More incriminating is that every ti…

The problem here is lack of evidence and availability bias makes the decision process look terrible, without giving us enough evidence to be confident about that conclusion.

If a decision is appealed and reversed, would we hear about it? If the employee did a proper review and concluded that, yeah, it's legit, for reasons we would agree with, how would we know from only hearing the other side of the story?

This is why actual judicial systems are more transparent. Cases are tried mostly in public. Judges write justifications for their decisions. This allows us on the outside to review what they're doing and understand how it works.

But, the downside is that it's slow, expensive, and there is rarely any privacy.

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