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Google have declared Droidscript is malware

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Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#361

Post by fuyu »

sequoia wrote: post #341
joemi wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not lying because there is some implicit information in the "we are unable" statement. What is implied in statements like this is that they're unable due to their policies. If not for implications like this, almost every single use of "unable" (or "can't", for that matter) ever in a sentence would be "lying" unless something is against the laws of physics.

I disagree. If you buy a product from me with 30 day warranty and it breaks on day 31 and you contact me, I will not give you a refund because: a) I haven't agreed to do so b) I'm not bound to do so c) I don't think it's warranted in this case. But I'm not "unable" to issue a refund. In another case I may say "hm it's out of warranty but you know what, it really shouldn't have broken like that and you're a good custo…

If I were to ask you if I could get a refund for an item out of warranty, what language would you use to refuse me? I'm struggling to come up with a response that doesn't use the terms "unable" or "can't" that wouldn't come across as fairly rude.

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#362

Post by bosswipe »

ajross wrote: post #14
blakesterz wrote: post #2

I had to go look to see what this was: "DroidScript is an easy to use, portable coding tool which simplifies mobile App development. It dramatically improves productivity by speeding up development by as much as 10x compared with using the standard development tools. It’s also an ideal tool for learning JavaScript, you can literally code anywhere with DroidScript, it’s not cloud based and doesn’t require an internet…

Time for one of these again. So... having read through their marketing material, this is an on-device tool that opens up what appears to be most of the Android application API to at least the user of the device, and potentially to any Droidscript applications they grab from other sources, and... maybe to other apps on the device? It's not clear from a quick read how extensive the runtime control is. So just right out…

Whatever "open platform" might mean Android is becoming less and less of one as Google has made huge efforts to move more and more core operating system functionality into closed source Play Services and continues to remove developer access to many APIs in the name of security. In fact what you're advocating for in this comment is to make the platform less open.

> (And it needs to be said: this is the kind of app that would never have been legal at all on any version of iOS.)

Exactly, iOS is not an open platform and Google has decided they want to be more like iOS.

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#364

Post by shadowgovt »

cwkoss wrote: post #268
shadowgovt wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is extremely possible that from Google's point of view, an inability to give such an analysis is itself justification to remove the app from the Play Store. If Droidscript is flexible enough to allow end-users to create an ad fraud engine, it's too flexible for the store. Play Store is relatively consistent in its position that a tool that bootstraps policy violations is itself a policy violation. But it would be…

Is there a service where I can host a raspi on my network and let people send it instructions about which ads should be clicked on and it gradually earns crypto over time? I'd love to make some money while fucking with ad networks... :)

I'm not sure, but I'm going to note that click-fraud already exists and Google (as well as other ad networks) have countermeasures to determine whether your raspi is likely "clicking for fun" and chargeback the advertisers for the non-human clicks.

Whether those countermeasures can be reliably defeated is left as an exercise for the raspi owner. ;)

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#365

Post by echelon »

sequoia wrote: post #301

> ...after taking into consideration the information that you have provided, we have confirmed that we are unable to reinstate your publisher account. I hate when using euphemism slides into flat out lying like this. They are not "unable" to reinstate the account, in fact they are the only party able to reinstate the account, that's why the account holder was contacting them instead of someone else. They are "unwilli…

Companies should not be gatekeepers of computing.

We've gone from a world where we can run any software on our devices, to one where Apple and Google tell us how we can make money, what we can run, and what speech is permitted.

It's Orwellian, but with corporate greed instead of nation state fascism.

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#366

Post by ben509 »

sofixa wrote: post #310
dtx1 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your thoughts on this are plausible, if not likely. However, the usual complete lack of communication by google is the actual problem. Perhaps droidscripts could mitigate googles concerns, if they had the decency to explain them.

But if they do, a malicious actor can use that information to circumvent their restrictions, and its their walled garden, so they have very little incentive to tell everyone exactly what they don't like.

That's the claim made by Google and many other big corporations. It's plausible enough, but I haven't seen any hard evidence that it's true.

Suppose it is true that these companies can't reveal their decision making because there's so much to be gained by bad actors that game these highly centralized systems.

Then it seems like a larger number of smaller firms could be more transparent and still achieve the same effective level of security.

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#367

Post by akiselev »

fuyu wrote: post #361
sequoia wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. If you buy a product from me with 30 day warranty and it breaks on day 31 and you contact me, I will not give you a refund because: a) I haven't agreed to do so b) I'm not bound to do so c) I don't think it's warranted in this case. But I'm not "unable" to issue a refund. In another case I may say "hm it's out of warranty but you know what, it really shouldn't have broken like that and you're a good custo…

If I were to ask you if I could get a refund for an item out of warranty, what language would you use to refuse me? I'm struggling to come up with a response that doesn't use the terms "unable" or "can't" that wouldn't come across as fairly rude.

"We do not issue refunds for items with expired warranties"

Notice that the policy is clearly stated in the rejection and there is no ambiguity.

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#368

Post by coffeecat »

> In your case, we have detected invalid traffic or activity on your account (Publisher Code: pub-********) and as a result it has been disabled. Because of this, the ability to serve and monetise through all products which depend on AdSense will also be disabled (for example, AdMob and YouTube).

> We understand that you may want to know more about the issues that we’ve detected. Because this information could be used to circumvent our proprietary detection system, we’re unable to provide our publishers with information about specific account activity.

> Once you’ve made changes to your site(s), app(s) or channel(s) to comply with our programme policies and terms of service, you can reach out to us using our appeal process. Please make sure that you provide a complete analysis of your traffic or other reasons that may have led to invalid activity in your appeal.

I realize that the term Kafka-esque is a bit overused nowadays... but this sounds exactly like a plot summary of Der Process.

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#369

Post by vineyardmike »

Vrondi wrote: post #304
arp242 wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, so how can I chat to my friends or companies with WhatsApp on Linux? How can I order food similar to Grab or Gojek on Linux? How can I get a date on Linux like Tinder? You can't. Sure, there are technological solutions to all of those, but in the real world that alone is pretty much useless.

You can use Watshapp multiple ways on Linux, including the web browser version [ https://itsfoss.com/whatsapp-linux-desktop/ ]. Although, if you're using Whatsapp at all you're either massively ignorant or stupid. I mean, giving Facebook your phone number is just not wise.

> if you're using Whatsapp at all you're either massively ignorant or stupid.

Lets not name call here. Many people have different motivations and concerns different than you. Most people likely already gave facebook their number, or someone else did for them through contact book sharing.

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