Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app • Hacker News Board

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#181

Post by dkersten » Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 11:35 AM UTC

jefftk wrote: post #152

pnw_hazor wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what everyone says about bad places. That's what they always say when asked to do terrible things. There will be people they could hire, but it wouldn't be anyone that would get invited to conferences, and so on. Nobody that would make Stanford proud. People who work at Google know they are working for a terrible company doing terrible things (there are plenty of those...) but those programmers, every single o…

> People who work at Google know they are working for a terrible company doing terrible things I work at Google, and I don't think it's terrible. Neither do most of my coworkers. There are things I wish were better, and things I'm working on improving, but overall I think Google's impact on the world is strongly positive.

> overall I think Google's impact on the world is strongly positive.

I think the exact opposite, which is why I've went to great lengths in an attempt to de-google my life, but google still forces itself on me through stuff like recaptcha.

Maybe google once had a positive impact once, but not anymore. Now google just kills products, forces tracking on people who don't even use google themselves and pushes adverts in front of us, while de-monitizing Youtubers and pushing its political/social justice agendas.

The fact that you and your coworkers don't see the problem just highlights what the people up-thread were saying and is the big part of the problem.

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#182

Post by Ensorceled » Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 11:36 AM UTC

tinus_hn wrote: post #86

Surprisingly he never mentioned what the actual violation was, nor of him asking what it was.

Did we read the same article? Can you clarify, because he quotes the notifications he received and his appeal?

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#183

Post by gwd » Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 11:37 AM UTC

oblio wrote: post #176

laingc wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, as an iOS user, I do not want the App Store opened up at all. Currently, I can go to the App Store, install any app, and be about 99.9% confident that the app will do me (or my technologically illiterate mother) absolutely no harm. This is something I value highly, and am happy to pay the “Apple premium” for.

You could just not void the warranty (more or less) for installing apps from other sources. Your mom always uses the App Store, everybody else is happy.

But there's more to the issue than just safety checking. The "App store tax" really is like a tax: it helps pay for developing the platform necessary for the apps to run on. Without that revenue, Apple would have to start looking for other ways of getting revenue -- for instance, selling my personal data.

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#184

Post by dkersten » Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 11:38 AM UTC

javert wrote: post #84

pnw_hazor wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what everyone says about bad places. That's what they always say when asked to do terrible things. There will be people they could hire, but it wouldn't be anyone that would get invited to conferences, and so on. Nobody that would make Stanford proud. People who work at Google know they are working for a terrible company doing terrible things (there are plenty of those...) but those programmers, every single o…

Amazon warehouse workers also have the option not to work there. Amazon is not forcing them to be there and Amazon does not owe someone a job any more than any other business owes jobs to random people.

I have family members who literally have to take whatever job they can find because their options are severely limited, even if those jobs are really bad and no job at all would probably result in homelessness. Some people really don't have the option to "not work there" and it seems rather callous to suggest that.

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#185

Post by astura » Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 11:38 AM UTC

pnw_hazor wrote: post #59

icebraining wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would that lawsuit allege? Under contract law, companies have a right to terminate their dealings with others, for any or no reason. Maybe it would be good if there was a law restricting that for these platforms, but as far as I know, there isn't. So I don't see how a lawsuit could be successful.

The claim could be something related to interfering with their business. "GOOG agreed to provide my company a service that we have reasonably relied on"..."GOOG struck my app for no cause causing my business damage..." and so on. Though, in-real-life, people who use google services have probably agreed to terms to bar any such claim.

...but its entirely legal (and reasonable) for a business to stop doing business with an entity simply because they feel like it. No matter if they entity was relying on the service or not. It happens all the time.

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#186

Post by MichaelMoser123 » Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 11:39 AM UTC

cbanek wrote: post #74

dollar wrote: post #3

The easiest way to identify a monopoly is to look at how badly a company can treat its customers and still get away with it. My company has a half dozen stories like this about Google in the last year alone. Know what Google is doing to its AdSense partners on a massive scale? They wait until your site has just under the earnings when they have to write you a check, then they terminate your AdSense account for “polic…

This also makes me feel even more strongly that the FTC should really clamp down on these very strict app stores. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/amicus_briefs/app... Both the App Store and Google Play stores I think are basically illegal monopolies. I should be able to install whatever app I want, without having to jailbreak my phone and deal with warranty nonsense from the manufacturer. Just like my comp…

I am not sure if they do regulations like this in our time. With At&t one could argue that this was a regulation that was dealing with a single country; with google & friends one can argue that this is a global thing and that export interests are at stake.

of course the law is supposed to deal with objective reality, and that considerations of context are not relevant here; however I am not sure that this is still true when things get tough.

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#187

Post by izacus » Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 11:40 AM UTC

codedokode wrote: post #127

izacus wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile your ad network library was mining data in the background (they do that even if you don't show the ad) of users without telling them in privacy policy. You're not the victim in your case.

Would not it be better to make it difficult to collect data (e.g. show a popup asking access to those data every time) instead of just requiring a privacy policy that nobody reads?

Both is being done of course.

However, I'd love to hear your solution on how to prevent data collection by the very app you're running on your pocket computer.

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#188

Post by astura » Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 11:41 AM UTC

master-litty wrote: post #129

maimeowmeow wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has a new policy to not rock the boat, including snitchin on anyone who might be. Probably not that large of a group of people that both read hacker news, read this exact article, even care about such things, and work at google. At a company of that size, they are maybe fancy cogs, but still replaceable.

Is it an official new policy? Having a hard time finding any solid information about it.

I guess their talking about this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20779004

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#189

Post by skinnyasianboi » Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 11:43 AM UTC

Mobile developer myself and I'm scared that this will happen to me, too. I have a >600k downloads open source app on the Play Store and I got 2 warnings for other apps within the last 8 years on the store without any explanation or what so ever. The non existent communication from Google really stinks.

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#190

Post by forgottenpass » Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 11:45 AM UTC

iamsb wrote: post #72

dollar wrote: post #3

The easiest way to identify a monopoly is to look at how badly a company can treat its customers and still get away with it. My company has a half dozen stories like this about Google in the last year alone. Know what Google is doing to its AdSense partners on a massive scale? They wait until your site has just under the earnings when they have to write you a check, then they terminate your AdSense account for “polic…

I never been to silicon valley, so my knowledge about it is extremely limited. But last couple of years, I am hearing so many stories from big tech companies - from google to facebook to snapchat to uber - that I wonder if there is a big culture issue in valley based companies.

There absolutely is, but they don't want to see it so they never will. (And I mean actually want to see it, no matter where that introspection goes. Not just telling themselves they're the kind of people that would want to see it.)

People that have worked in software at non-fashionable companies outside the region can usually see it, but when people move to the bubble (geographically or mentally) they often get assimilated.

It's hard to talk about, except in person. Online they can swarm any conversation, and they're from the west coast which means they're experts at passive-aggressively tearing people apart.