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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”

#271

Post by balls187 »

supermatt wrote: post #116
balls187 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(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.

Simply because the ToS says that, it doesn't mean it's a fair contract. Whether you win would depend on the jurisdiction.

And resources at your disposal.

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

#272

Post by ucaetano »

smadurange wrote: post #255
_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…

Your premise is sound. But it's in your conclusion that you miss the point. The point is its not 2005 anymore. Today, if Google didn't do it, someone else will and can. Except that a certain brand of monopolies set things up in a way that a rather worrying number of people think that without these monopolies there's no other choice. You think that it's Google that's enabled and empowered all of us. That, my friend, i…

Sure, someone else might have done it, but that's irrelevant. It doesn't matter if it was Google or Apple, or someone else.

What matters is only the impact to the consumer, and the consumer is far, far better off than in 2005.

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

#273

Post by ucaetano »

giantsloth wrote: post #214
ucaetano wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can do all of that, just download the apk. What you seem to want is that app stores should be forced to accept any apps? The rest is just saudosistic nostalgia. There wasn't mass access to the internet, you're just missing the times when a small elite had access to the internet. Consumers are far better now than they were.

The implication of “Consumers are far better now than they were” is that they are better, because of the App Store. This is false, completely illogical, and a straw man argument (as no one suggest users of tech have it worse in 2019 then 2005). Consumers are better off now, because technology has gotten better, not because App Stores have made things better. App Stores have actively caused harm to the consumers throu…

> The implication of “Consumers are far better now than they were” is that they are better, because of the App Store. This is false, completely illogical, and a straw man argument (as no one suggest users of tech have it worse in 2019 then 2005).

No, it isn't false. Buying and/or installing an app today is orders of magnitude easier, safer and cheaper than 2005.

You clearly don't like it, and you probably are part of the little elite that had access to the internet before the general public did.

You can still do online everything that you used to in 2005, nothing was removed.

> That may have been true in the 80s, but by 2000 usage was at 50% and climbed to 75% by 2010.

Sorry the break the news to you, but the US isn't the world.

Maybe you should step out of the hacker news bubble for a minute.

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

#274

Post by Stuckinsofa »

Teknoman117 wrote: post #129
Stuckinsofa wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you have to enable some kind of global special access right? So it's not the same thing.

You have to do that on Windows and macOS now as well...

I haven't had to enable some global setting to allow unknown programs on Windows 10. What are you referring to?

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

#275

Post by maxxxxx »

Tsubasachan wrote: post #193
golergka wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're a mobile app developer, what choice do you have?

On Android you can easily sideload apps. So there is a choice. I understand that 90% of people get their apps exclusively from the Play Store but that is not because Google is evil. Its because people prefer one store were they can find everything: the supermarket model.

"On Android you can easily sideload apps. So there is a choice."

If you develop apps to make money as a business this is not realistic. If the user can only side load your apps you probably have shrunken your potential customer base by 95%.

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

#276

Post by megous »

If Google can't be bothered to give a fuck, can't this be mittigated by splitting the responsibilities?

Have a company that takes care of building, uploading and distributing apps from developers to the app store, and fixing all the distribution issues (via Google/Apple contacts in cofee shops in SV, that could push for resolution of issues internally).

And developers would work with this comapny, and would not need to care about Google/Apple at all.

Why do we need to see all these "Google did this to us" articles on HN? This should be a solvable problem, via some intermediary that would have more options/human contacts/power wrt Google, than a single developers.

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

#277

Post by posterboy »

neuronic wrote: post #185
thatoneuser wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had similar experience. Several years ago app with 6+ digit installs in the first six months. Got some generic excuse and our app was down. We could contest but then they threatened to take even more away. I don't like these platforms...

This is precisely why EU antitrust strikes against Google are well deserved. I hope they are hit with much more.

Well deserved for the EU, not the programmer? Not really. Suppose the programmer could have sued, though.

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

#278

Post by driverdan »

noitsnot wrote: post #166
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.

Google banned me for deceptive ads. I converted the app. to Objective-C and made it into iTunes with no issues.

Apple isn't any better. They arbitrarily ban apps too.

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

#279

Post by shawnz »

dTal wrote: post #256
shawnz wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bubbling (something Google does intentionally to make the user experience better) is a much different and much less serious problem than the fact that Google offers inadequate customer support and has a heavy-handed banning policy

I'm not convinced it's less serious. Google's bad behaviour is serious precisely because it has total control of the memetic environment. I've never had a problem with Google that would have required customer support, but I am conscious that I make dozens of Google searches a day, and that my view of the web is exactly what Google wants my view of the web to be. That scares me more than the customer service I've neve…

> and that my view of the web is exactly what Google wants my view of the web to be

How so? As far as I know, the bubbling is based on your input only, not Google's. So their desires as a company are not involved in what you see.

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

#280

Post by mbel »

driverdan wrote: post #278
noitsnot wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google banned me for deceptive ads. I converted the app. to Objective-C and made it into iTunes with no issues.

Apple isn't any better. They arbitrarily ban apps too.

Well they seem to be slightly better with humans instead of bots, but yeah both stores seem to be awful.
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