Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google terminated our business via our Google Play Developer Account

blog.usejournal.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

381–390 of 530 posts

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

#381

Post by noonespecial »

roenxi wrote: post #350
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…

When dealing with a bureaucracy (ie, not Google specific) a "review" might not mean "reconsider the issue" instead meaning "check the process was followed". In an extreme example, lets say that a bureaucrat takes an action because they have an unreasonable personal dislike of something. A bureaucratic review of the situation will confirm that the person had authority to act as they did then close the case. The reason…

I like it.

roenxi's law: "In any sufficiently advanced bureaucracy, all oversight degrades to tautology".

We did it therefore it was right otherwise we wouldn't have done it. Case closed.

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

#384

Post by mcbain »

bribroder wrote: post #371
toomuchtodo wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With RDS instances in AWS, it’s the same behavior: destroying a database instance removes all of the automated backups that were made. Make sure to take a final snapshot!

In just the last few months they've made it possible to preserve these snapshots after destroying the database: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2018/11/amazon-rd...

And there is also delete protection by default for new prod databases: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2018/09/amazon-rd...

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

#385

Post by rhizome »

p2t2p wrote: post #242
Animats wrote: post #193

The real threat to Google will come when someone sues over this behavior as an antitrust case. This is part of "supply chain" antitrust law. It's sometimes called a "refusal to supply", where a manufacturer refuses to sell to a retailer. That's legal if it is not "part of a predatory or exclusionary strategy to acquire or maintain a monopoly."[1] If you're the only supplier of something, antitrust law starts to apply…

The saddest part is that such behaviour will bring full power of regulation on all of us, just like GDPR did. Sooner or later lawmakers will come after all of us because of neglect of that sort.

So now you know not to blame the government or a political party.

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

#386

Post by bitreality »

reaperducer wrote: post #252
SiVal wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Caprices of TOS details, reviews, algorithms, service quality, or whatever are not the real problem. The real problem is when you can't reasonably choose to do business with someone else and move on, as they are free to do with you. Network effects are causing more and more important things to both expand into great significance and to be dominated by a single company (or pair of gatekeepers, both of whom must be app…

The real problem is when you can't reasonably choose to do business with someone else and move on, as they are free to do with you. Something I learned the hard way when I first started out in business is to never make your business dependent on a single entity. Whether it's a supplier, or a publisher, or a telco, or whatever. They are all single points of failure, and unless you're a huge business, one failure can b…

That is precisely the problem with the current landscape for online businesses. Nearly every step of the way there is a single entity that you need to work with, or you are toast.

The biggest one lately comes down to marketplaces and payment processing. For example, if you are running a business selling a physical product, and you are banned from:

- Amazon

- PayPal

Your business is dead. It usually comes down to exposure and payment processing. Some businesses can gain exposure through a variety of channels. But most businesses get the majority of their customers through a small list of channels. That can be Facebook Ads, SEO, Forums, etc.

If you wake up one day and Google de-lists you from organic search, and the majority of your traffic was from SEO, you're dead. You can try refocusing and investing in other channels, but the majority of your potential new customers probably use one or two channels to find your service. So unless you are the only person offering said service, they'll just go to a competitor.

These companies like Amazon, Google, Paypal, Facebook, Apple have become gatekeepers. Try and do any type of e-commerce without using the above services. Good luck buddy!

Many businesses boil down to 1-3 of the above. Losing access to one can be all it takes to go from a highly successful company to a doomed company. And these services will ban you on ToS violations, without ever explaining what part of the ToS you violated. The implication from such a ban is that your business, your livelihood, your life's pursuit is instantly crippled or dead. The implication to them is nothing.

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

#387

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

slrz wrote: post #257
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What percentage of android devices, in the world, have that box ticked?

I'd guess most of them, if you actually consider the whole world. Probably not enough to matter, if you are only looking at the UK.

Oh, good point. I forgot about China.

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

#388

Post by efreak »

slrz wrote: post #257
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What percentage of android devices, in the world, have that box ticked?

I'd guess most of them, if you actually consider the whole world. Probably not enough to matter, if you are only looking at the UK.

Actually, alternative app stores can make use of that as well. The installer app needs to be installed as a system app with proper permissions, and it will them be able to background install apps on demand just like Google play does. The F-Droid Privileged Extension[0] does just that. While you need to be rooted to add/register such apps, that's not a problem for device manufacturers.

[0] https://gitlab.com/fdroid/privileged-extension/

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

#389

Post by netheril96 »

pas wrote: post #317
Operyl wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is reading a legally binding contract with regards to your business not a real world expectation?

In a lot of jurisdictions a contract that you were not able to negotiate properly is simply void. Sure, a ToS is different, and there's basically an implicit contract when you buy a service, but that doesn't mean that the ToS is all powerful. It can be still unfair practice. (Some jurisdictions have that too.) Now of course courts can't really force G to do business with you, but as others mentioned they can be sued…

Still, you have to read TOS first to understand which part is definitely enforceable and which part isn’t. Ignoring it completely is foolish for a business.

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

#390

Post by m-p-3 »

rjknight wrote: post #23

It sounds like the problem is with the outsourced developers responsible for the app. It's their account which has been banned - for multiple violations of the ToS. Now, perhaps this is just over-zealous enforcement on Google's part, but it's also possible that these developers have created shady apps before, or are adding shady code to apps developed for others. The OP doesn't seem to know for certain what code is i…

> suggest that the author has contacted them to find out why their account is banned

With how Google makes the appeal/review process opaque, they might not even know themselves.

Transparency is a major issue here, you cannot even defend yourself because you don't even have access to the "exhibits" or any other kind of details.

Post reply on HN