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

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

#211

Post by zwily »

daemin wrote: post #205
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.

Except for those applications which have a "free period" of some days then charge $10/week and uninstalling the application does not stop the subscription.

I believe iOS 13 will ask if you want to cancel a subscription when you uninstall its app...

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

#212

Post by ubermonkey »

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…

This suggests you do not understand what "monopoly" means.

Apple's iOS model is a feature, not a bug. If you are unhappy with the app rules there, or with Apple being the curator of what's available, then iOS isn't for you.

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

#213

Post by ubermonkey »

augstein wrote: post #82
javert wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not this again. (pardon my sarcasm, no intent to offend.) There was a point in time when Microsoft was deeply embedding its really shitty and uber insecure Internet Explorer into Windows and causing all sorts of very severe problems problems. If that had continued, the world would have switched to free software. It was inevitable. But the government stepped in and forced Microsoft to make a just marginally better pro…

I‘m not so sure about this. Is there any indication or prior example from business history for that claim? The Apple App Store seems good enough for most normal people. They will even defend having no alternative means of installing software on their iPhones with „Security“.

I'm highly technical -- 30 years in dev -- and I prefer the curated, controlled environment of iOS for my phone because I have zero interest in sysadmining my telephone.

You put scare quotes around security, but Apple's approach really does result in a more stable and secure platform.

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

#214

Post by huffmsa »

gargravarr wrote: post #201
huffmsa wrote: post #119

Seems to me that Google is turning on a lot of deep learning models in production which aren't production ready. Search has gone to shit recently. Image search is hot garbage for anything but images with well known people / places / things. You can't reliably filter or sort news results by date. YouTube is filtering pro LGBT content but allowing weird Eastern European pedo videos. The play store is apparently moderat…

I searched for an error message yesterday and Search removed 18 of the 20 keywords (they are all scratched out as 'missing'). The only remaining keywords were for the platform I had the error on. Thousands of results that were all completely irrelevant. I was completely stunned how something I rely on could suddenly do that. What is the point? Google's monopoly has gotten to the point where they do not care how their…

Happens to me all the time now too. Even when I put the phrase in quotes it still omits words or says "search for X, do your really want to search for Y"

But maybe our use cases are the outliers, and the new search is what works for most people.

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

#215

Post by dang »

pnw_hazor wrote: post #14

Shutup! I heard they pay well. /s Programmers here at HN could stop this behavior in a minute. They do not care about you.

Would you please stop posting flamewar comments to HN? You've done a bunch of that in this thread. It's not what this site is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20826827.

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

#217

Post by HNcantBtrustd »

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'm feeling this way about Amazon recently.

They have become significantly anti customer.

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

#218

Post by billman »

Crinus wrote: post #158
aviraldg wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you call dark patterns are ways to ensure users don't accidentally load malware onto their device. They can definitely do better though - I think a good first step would a dialog to choose trusted alternative app stores such that installing apps does not require a separate confirmation step (as is currently the case.) The Google Play Services moves are unfortunate, but required. Most device manufacturers do not…

> What you call dark patterns are ways to ensure users don't accidentally load malware onto their device. They are still dark patterns, that they also have found excuses for those dark patterns does not make them any better. In fact most of the stuff (not just Google's) we see nowadays that take control away from the users - very often in ways that entrench monopolies and the status quo - use "but security" as their…

Totally agree. Open source software is possible on Android, but it's nowhere near the level of say Linux.

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

#219

Post by segmondy »

huffmsa wrote: post #120
pnw_hazor wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That does not explain why Goog doesn't treat people like humans. If the app developer has been in good standing for years, and has a popular app, why not send them more information as to why they are in violation? And give them some time to fix it.

Because they're not using humans to do the reviews anymore. They're putting bots on the frontlines, then using humans to (maybe) handle appeals. But those humans are probably undertrained, underpaid and have zero context for each of their 1k cases, so they default to accepting the bots judgement. Which in turn feedback to the bot, justifying it's actions.

Does matter, even if they used bots, The bot would detect something. The bot would go through some rules to determine what it would flag. The bot should report on it.

We detected something suspicious about your ads. We detected that you're abusing the battery life. We detected adult contect.

Give them something! Even a clue!

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