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Google removed my ads-free app for “deceptive ads”

purpleleafsoftware.com

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Re: Google removed my ads-free app for “deceptive ads”

#131

Post by TeMPOraL »

craftyguy wrote: post #18
echelon wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think in fact a lot of people do want them to do this. I, the engineer, do not want them to do this. Before Google and Apple, I didn't have this problem. I didn't have to pay their tax or march to their beat. You might argue that it's their platform and that's the cost for us to pay. But it wasn't always this way! These companies leveraged their advantages to steal eyeballs away from an open web and lock them in…

> I, the engineer, do not want them to do this Eh, you are but one person, amongst billions. There's a good chance that what you don't want != what others want.

That's the problem with targeting the lowest common denominator. Since that LCD is mindless consumption, that's what the ecosystem evolves to. If you have stuff to actually do, you're increasingly out of luck.

Re: Google removed my ads-free app for “deceptive ads”

#132

Post by Simple_Guy »

hayd wrote: post #107
Simple_Guy wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine you started a really cool walled garden, invited everybody over, and they all enjoy it. Then you kick out a few trolls, and one of them thinks that the government should come in and forcibly allow the trolls back in. It's my garden, my choice. You are still allowed to publish your app on the web.

If you kicked out African Americans would you say it's your garden, your choice?

Yes. In a perfect society, one would be free to invite whomever one wants to one's walled garden party without fear that a mob would form to lynch you because your walled garden party does not have a trans-species potatokin.

Re: Google removed my ads-free app for “deceptive ads”

#133

Post by a_imho »

jakobegger wrote: post #125
GorgeRonde wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I shouldn't have to pay for that customer service if Google or Apple's cut is 30% of app revenues.

I'm pretty sure that 99% of apps on the store make so little revenue that it's not worth it to pay someone competent to review them, especially with all the ad supported free apps. So a very low percentage of apps pay for the cost of running the app store. A fixed filing fee would level that imbalance.

Developers pay $25 or so on sign up.

Re: Google removed my ads-free app for “deceptive ads”

#134

Post by antocv »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #119

From the blog comments: > Good luck man. I had an app removed because someone did a review of it and their review had screenshots of my app and Google banned the app for copyright infringement siting them as the source. No appeal, one strike, never got through to a human. If true that’s laughablly insane.

You, still using google for anything, is insane. OK, harsh word, but really, your behaviour is modified by the search results/ads/suggestions you see. Every search you do, leans you to continue using Google in the future, and looking at the web through their eyes.

Re: Google removed my ads-free app for “deceptive ads”

#135

Post by em500 »

fouc wrote: post #79
_jgvg wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I, the engineer, do not want them to do this. You don't matter, consumers matter. > Before Google and Apple, I didn't have this problem. And you didn't have distribution either. > But it wasn't always this way! Indeed, there wasn't even distribution. Do you actually remember what was shipping mobile software back in 2005? > I want them to pay back the negative externalities they've leveraged onto us. Again, you as…

Why can't mobile follow the same model as desktop?

The desktop distribution model was awful. I wasted many many hours in the past cleaning crapware from family PCs.

Re: Google removed my ads-free app for “deceptive ads”

#136

Post by quickthrower2 »

antocv wrote: post #134
quickthrower2 wrote: post #119

From the blog comments: > Good luck man. I had an app removed because someone did a review of it and their review had screenshots of my app and Google banned the app for copyright infringement siting them as the source. No appeal, one strike, never got through to a human. If true that’s laughablly insane.

You, still using google for anything, is insane. OK, harsh word, but really, your behaviour is modified by the search results/ads/suggestions you see. Every search you do, leans you to continue using Google in the future, and looking at the web through their eyes.

True. Although I mostly use google for [Technical Keyword] not working with [Technical Keyword], rather than [Who should I vote for]. I actually use hn.algolia.com more often when I want an opinion on something important to me :-)

Re: Google removed my ads-free app for “deceptive ads”

#137

Post by stedaniels »

a_imho wrote: post #133
jakobegger wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure that 99% of apps on the store make so little revenue that it's not worth it to pay someone competent to review them, especially with all the ad supported free apps. So a very low percentage of apps pay for the cost of running the app store. A fixed filing fee would level that imbalance.

Developers pay $25 or so on sign up.

Which barely covers a competent person sipping a coffee whilst glancing at the title of your app.

Re: Google removed my ads-free app for “deceptive ads”

#138

Post by apatters »

echelon wrote: post #8

Can we sue Google when they do things like this? No single entity should wield this much power. And we should rewrite the laws to make this so. Google and Apple wanted to be in the role of gatekeeper, so they should be beholden to the apps on their platform. We had a web where developers were in control of their own deployment. Everything was decentralized and required responsibility and diligence. Now the power is o…

This is just another example of how crappy Google's customer sevice is. News flash, monopolies always have crappy customer service, duopolies and oligopolies are almost as bad.

Phone OSes and app stores are a duopoly, Google and Apple are the only games in town, what the US needs to do is look at its antitrust and pro competition laws, figure out if they make sense for the information age and then apply them.

This might be happening in the very early stages now, when Trump appointed Rohit Chopra as an FTC Commissioner last year one of Chopra's first moves was to hire Lina Khan, an antitrust academic who is critical of the FAANG companies and has clashed with Google very publicly. I can only think of one reason the FTC would hire Khan, to find reasons for going after the tech giants.

Re: Google removed my ads-free app for “deceptive ads”

#139

Post by holoduke »

ams6110 wrote: post #50
sverhagen wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't they take away the level playing field when they created the playing field?

They built a nice new field with a wall around it and guards at the gates. The old open field with all the weeds and litter is still there.

Your argue would not stand a chance in court. If a shoppingmall allows sellers to sell products in their shopping mall and suddenly the shoppingmall would dispel certain sellers resulting into a dispute then the normal us law system will apply.

Re: Google removed my ads-free app for “deceptive ads”

#140

Post by ElBarto »

balls187 wrote: post #81
ams6110 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No you can't sue them. Nobody has a right to publish apps on Google Play. They can be as arbitrary or incompetent as they like in what they do. As long as they aren't violating some protected class criteria, there's not much a court is going to do. Google hasn't taken away anything. There is still a web and you're free to deploy what you want there on your terms. (Edits to correct Google's autocorrect errors.)

(IANAL) You CAN sue them, but for what is unclear. "Wielding too much power" isn't a crime. And even if you could find a legitimate reason, you are unlikely to win. I would assume Google Play's Terms of Service has several clauses, including indemnity, arbitration, and agreement that Google can remove your app at anytime for any reason. Any of those should be sufficient to have the suit summarily dimissed.

It would be a civil case, not a criminal one, and it would be on the basis that they caused you a financial loss and a loss of reputation.

The main issue IMHO is not so much whether that would be possible but the fact that they have infinite financial resources while you and I probably have very little money to throw at legal costs. So we're screwed.

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