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It seems reasonable to me as well. So far 99% of the people I have seen complaining about their account being suspended were unwilling to read the ToS, even less to try to comply with them. I am pretty sure that the review process does mistakes as well, but as always bad actors spoil everything for everybody. FWIW, I had 2 apps removed from the play store earlier this month. They were all based on the same codebase (…
> unwilling to read the ToS, even less to try to comply with them. So... a sane human being? Someone who can't afford to spend literally hours reading legalese and trying to figure out what it means?
That isn't to say this isn't an unethical and jerk policy of Google's. It's just that you knew they, and most other centralized companies with rent models are incentived by profit to behave this way.
So many people are slapping their hands down a burner and then acting shocked when they get burnt.
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.
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Google has the burden of proof to show why they are guilty by mere association, but won't do it, likely because they don't want to reveal any information about how they determine who is violating the ToS. There should be greater transparency and a better appeals process, but there won't be. At the very least it doesn't seem that Google has thought of a better way to handle the scenario where an honest client relies u…
Google does not seem bound by the burden of proof you describe. What evidence supports your claim?
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.
Back when our anti-monopoly legislation was first introduced, that wasn't the case - monopolies were busted just as well because they did something anti-competitive, even if that was presented as benefiting their customers (and even if it really did, short term).
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App stores are the least-unreliable mechanism I have to trust executable code. I don’t even enable JavaScript by default. Do you have an alternative trust mechanism that can’t be subverted via, for example, algorithmic voting?
I think there's a couple solutions to this. First, "trust" should depend on your own evaluation of the developer, based on metrics like how long their app has existed, customer reviews, what protections they have around handling data, etc. You have the ability to do a much better job evaluating trust than Apple or Google are likely to. But even beyond that, sandboxing needs to be made effective enough that even if yo…
Wow - no, we do not have the ability to ascertain the overall trustworthiness of a dev, certainly not better than Google or Apple.
Reviews can be faked, and 'how long their app has existed' is not a very good measure of anything. Their T&C's on 'protections' don't mean anything if they are not already trustworthy.
So unfortunately, this is one of the valuable things that AppStores can provide.
This is awful and I feel terrible for them, but a lot of alarm bells went off when I read this: I then attempted to login to my ‘Google Developer Account’ for the first time. Previous to this our app developers were the only ones to access our account to upload and update our app for us It sounds like they violated probably one of the first requirements of the ToS not to share account credentials. From there ... real…
I have a hard time empathizing with people unwilling to read the ToS. It contains hard rules regulating what you can do with your app, not just with respect to Google, but also with your consumers.
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.
That is a bit of a silly comparison. Even if you let a criminal borrow your car and they do something bad, there is some sort of legal apparatus to get your car back if it's clear that you were not involved in that criminal activity. The impound lot doesn't simply say "sorry, we saw your appeal, but we're gonna go ahead and keep the car forever."
There should be some limits as to what you can and cannot put into TOS.