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

#471

Post by eganist » Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 5:23 PM UTC

ebg13 wrote: post #415

eganist wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"FDA Approved" isn't a boogeyman term. It means the supplement was in fact reviewed/approved by the FDA, whereas dubious substances come with statements that their claims have not been FDA approved. Why the aversion to "FDA Approved"?

> It means the supplement was in fact reviewed/approved by the FDA The FDA does not "approve" supplements, period. https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/it-really-fda... "FDA doesn’t approve dietary supplements." (from ^) FDA approval means, specifically, that "the agency has determined that the benefits of the product outweigh the known risks for the intended use." (from ^) And the FDA makes no such determi…

Touche, wrong word choice ("supplement") on my part.

Taking GP at their word, whatever it was was FDA approved. If the FDA doesn't approve supplements, then whatever GP represented couldn't have been a supplement, which gets back to my original question:

Why is "FDA approved" being treated here as a boogeyman by the parent?

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

#472

Post by DanBC » Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 5:25 PM UTC

olyjohn wrote: post #467

JohnBooty wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows wasn't like that. Yeah, and it was an absolute disaster. Until very recently (Win7, roughly, or perhaps Vista) near every Windows install -- unless it had been locked down by an administrator, or maintained by a power user -- was an absolute cesspool of malware and outright spyware. The average Windows machine was literally unsafe to use. That's fine for you to want it, but don't impose it on me. Essentially…

Windows wasn't unsafe to use, Internet Explorer and Outlook Express were unsafe to use. It had nothing to do with a lack of app stores, and more to do with the fact that ActiveX controls were allowed to run rampant on a machine, and that they could install themselves with a single dialog box that nobody ever paid attention to, and sometimes even bypass that. I mean, even with an App Store, IE would have been pushed h…

But IE was baked into the system (eg Active Desktop) which is why Windows was insecure.

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

#473

Post by 19ylram49 » Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 5:26 PM UTC

tedivm wrote: post #386

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 adsense behavior isn't even new- they did this to me in 2005! My website had a trickle of ads, just enough to pay for my college books each year. When I went to cash out Google decided it was click fraud and stole my money, with absolutely no recourse. They're an awful company with horrible customer support. It's frustrating too, because my startup has investors who keep trying to get us to switch to GCP, but I…

Whoa! I actually had pretty much the same experience about 11-ish years ago, in 2008. I completely forgot about that until seeing your comment here; wow, wow, wow!

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

#474

Post by vzaliva » Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 5:28 PM UTC

I have a very similar problem with Google's Chrome store. I have a small open-source extension. Recently they started to send me notices that it is in violation of their policies. All my attempts to figure out what exactly I am doing wrong failed. I emailed multiple times. Finally, they just removed it from the store.

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

#475

Post by eightysixfour » Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 5:29 PM UTC

ebg13 wrote: post #426

eightysixfour wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The FDA approves that ingredients are “safe” to consume but the label is often used to imply the FDA has approved the ingredient for whatever health claim the manufacturer has attached to the supplement. It is a boogeyman term not because of what it actually means but how it is leveraged to say something it doesn’t mean.

> The FDA approves that ingredients are “safe” to consume Only for food and drug ingredients. The FDA has no such process for supplements. They FDA only evaluates supplement products after public health concerns arise from a product already on the market. "FDA is not authorized to review dietary supplement products for safety and effectiveness before they are marketed. If the dietary supplement contains a NEW ingredi…

Take a look at the bottle and description here:

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Daily-Multivitamin-Mineral-Probi...

The FDA says they cannot be used this way but they are.

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

#476

Post by tyri_kai_psomi » Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 5:29 PM UTC

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…

> 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.

Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to apply to my local general contractors, painters, landscapers, electricians, etc.

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

#477

Post by seany » Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 5:30 PM UTC

segmondy wrote: post #466

vortico wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this system immune to me clicking on an enemy website's ads 100's of times to get them banned from AdWords?

Nothing. If anything, I'm feeling like we should create bots, browser extensions that repeatedly do this and cause massive havoc on their system until they listen and start figuring out better ways to fix their system. Folks are not fighting back. I'm not into ads and have never cared about using them to monetize, but if I did and they took my money. It's war.

Related idea: https://adnauseam.io

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

#478

Post by bduerst » Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 5:33 PM UTC

ebg13 wrote: post #274

eightysixfour wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Our client was perfectly reputable, ran multi million dollar ad campaigns on television and radio, and was FDA approved. I’m not trying to be a jerk here, but it sounds like your client is selling dietary supplements which Google has been (IMO rightfully) aggressively removing.

> > was FDA approved > it sounds like your client is selling dietary supplements The FDA doesn't "approve" dietary supplements, so either the person you're replying to is lying, ill informed (which I suspect), or it's not supplements.

FDA approves certain substances for specific uses. One loophole that dietary supplement companies will use to stamp the FDA approval on themselves is to include one such substance, even if the specific use isn't what their product is being used for.

Another loophole that these dietary supplement companies use is the "FDA Inspected" stamp.

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

#479

Post by e12e » Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 5:36 PM UTC

So, with the US tradewar on China, the big Chinese companies are forced to roll out an os and app store. They cater to a large internal market augmented by a large market in India.

The sanctions could potentially kill Android, I'm thinking. At least with how Alphabet is "curating" it.

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

#480

Post by eropple » Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 5:37 PM UTC

soulofmischief wrote: post #338

GhettoMaestro wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your ideal state of Internet / Tech companies is definitely in the minority contrasted to overall expectations the broader population has put on these devices and services. Yeah, we get it, you're smart. I'm smart. Most people here are smart. But protections still matter. What you're saying is I don't want to wear a seatbelt when driving my car. Sure that is your choice - but I think it is a very foolish one.

Don't strawman this argument into a conversation about intelligence. This is about personal freedom. Not wearing a seatbelt can put others at risk for injury liability. Installing an app will not do that. Let's stay on topic. And while we're at it, you and I both know that majority opinion has never been strongly correlated with truth.

> Installing an app will not do that.

Ever seen a botnet?