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Google can ban your Android app if they think you’ve clicked on your own ads

danfabulich.medium.com

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Re: Google can ban your Android app if they think you’ve clicked on your own ads

#41

Post by ryandrake »

genuine_smiles wrote: post #26
CGamesPlay wrote: post #7

I'd extend this even further: never use a single account for more than one purpose. Create a separate account at the same company for the other purpose. Some examples: - Every product/project you manage should be on a separate account on Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. - Nothing tied to your consumer accounts should be used for anything business related. - Your Amazon shopping account and your AWS account should defin…

> - Every product/project you manage should be on a separate account on Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. I wouldn’t do this with Facebook. Creating a second account is against Facebook policy, and they may ban both accounts.

Legit question: is there any other service/company on earth that bans you for having multiple accounts? This seems like an insanely restrictive policy. One of the defining characteristics of internet communication is that you can have a “work persona” and a “home persona” and maybe another one for your hobbies, another one for your porn browsing and gambling, another one for your aunts and uncles. To deny this basic, universal concept is backwards and frankly shouldn’t be acceptable to anyone.

Re: Google can ban your Android app if they think you’ve clicked on your own ads

#42

Post by monkeybutton »

CrendKing wrote: post #10
monkeybutton wrote: post #5

So Google can manage hundreds of feature/experiment flags on accounts to control which shade of blue you see in an A/B test, but silo-ing which products an account has access to just isn't possible?

I think it's more like they don't want to do it. If they consider someone a "fraud", why allow this "bad actor" to be still in the system? It's like "if someone steals, put them in the jail altogether, instead of just ban him from grocery stores".

It still seems overly harsh at the personal/individual level. Should lose your photos because you make a ghastly comment on YouTube, or lose your email access because you app. got pulled? A Google account has incredible breadth. I understand they have to deal with an incredible scale of fraud but surely they can differentiate between a recently created account using a few of their products for fraud vs. an account that has human-looking activity over a longer period of time.

Re: Google can ban your Android app if they think you’ve clicked on your own ads

#43

Post by o-__-o »

dfabulich wrote: post #19
CGamesPlay wrote: post #7

I'd extend this even further: never use a single account for more than one purpose. Create a separate account at the same company for the other purpose. Some examples: - Every product/project you manage should be on a separate account on Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. - Nothing tied to your consumer accounts should be used for anything business related. - Your Amazon shopping account and your AWS account should defin…

(Author here.) This is excellent advice for consumer apps/products, (it's especially important to keep enterprise accounts fully separate from your individual consumer accounts), but it wouldn't have helped DroidScript in this case. DroidScript is a non-profit organization; when they signed up for Google AdMob and Google Play Store, they provided the same tax ID (their EIN) in both cases. Creating separate Google acc…

> Creating a subsidiary business for every type of Google account you have would be quite expensive

Costs roughly $1000/yr to run a properly sheltered LLC. Just saying, that’s a low barrier to overcome for any company turning modest revenue.

Re: Google can ban your Android app if they think you’ve clicked on your own ads

#44

Post by CGamesPlay »

genuine_smiles wrote: post #26
CGamesPlay wrote: post #7

I'd extend this even further: never use a single account for more than one purpose. Create a separate account at the same company for the other purpose. Some examples: - Every product/project you manage should be on a separate account on Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. - Nothing tied to your consumer accounts should be used for anything business related. - Your Amazon shopping account and your AWS account should defin…

> - Every product/project you manage should be on a separate account on Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. I wouldn’t do this with Facebook. Creating a second account is against Facebook policy, and they may ban both accounts.

You can create Page accounts directly, which are not "people", so they aren't subject to that policy. They also do not have access to the same features, however.

Re: Google can ban your Android app if they think you’ve clicked on your own ads

#45

Post by taneq »

CGamesPlay wrote: post #7

I'd extend this even further: never use a single account for more than one purpose. Create a separate account at the same company for the other purpose. Some examples: - Every product/project you manage should be on a separate account on Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. - Nothing tied to your consumer accounts should be used for anything business related. - Your Amazon shopping account and your AWS account should defin…

> Don't use services where you're required to mix accounts like this.

In fact don't let your business depend on these services full stop. EVER.

Re: Google can ban your Android app if they think you’ve clicked on your own ads

#46

Post by ARandomerDude »

edoceo wrote: post #31
bogwog wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stories like this always scare me because they remind me that all of my domain names are on Google domains, including the one I use for my work email address. I gotta migrate out one of these days.

porkbun is cheap/good too (but some may throw the China boogeyman at them)

Chinese authoritarian state intervention isn't a bogeyman, it's a real threat first and foremost to its own people, and secondarily to those who do (especially tech) business there.

Just because a real threat is widely acknowledged doesn't make it a bogeyman. Bogeymen, after all, are mythical. Chinese tyranny isn't.

Re: Google can ban your Android app if they think you’ve clicked on your own ads

#47

Post by blibble »

o-__-o wrote: post #43
dfabulich wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Author here.) This is excellent advice for consumer apps/products, (it's especially important to keep enterprise accounts fully separate from your individual consumer accounts), but it wouldn't have helped DroidScript in this case. DroidScript is a non-profit organization; when they signed up for Google AdMob and Google Play Store, they provided the same tax ID (their EIN) in both cases. Creating separate Google acc…

> Creating a subsidiary business for every type of Google account you have would be quite expensive Costs roughly $1000/yr to run a properly sheltered LLC. Just saying, that’s a low barrier to overcome for any company turning modest revenue.

why so expensive? in the UK it's £13/year (under $20)

Re: Google can ban your Android app if they think you’ve clicked on your own ads

#48

Post by ulrikrasmussen »

> Google will never tell you why they banned you from AdSense/AdMob. (Honestly, it sort of makes sense that they share no evidence, because Google doesn’t want people to learn how Google detects click fraud.)

No, I don't think that makes sense. Google is not sharing this information because they want to protect their own business, but in doing so, they are shifting all risk to the app developers. If you have a business model that only works because your process for removing bad actors is kept secure by obscurity, then maybe you should rethink whether your business model is sound?

Re: Google can ban your Android app if they think you’ve clicked on your own ads

#49

Post by rexf »

blibble wrote: post #47
o-__-o wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Creating a subsidiary business for every type of Google account you have would be quite expensive Costs roughly $1000/yr to run a properly sheltered LLC. Just saying, that’s a low barrier to overcome for any company turning modest revenue.

why so expensive? in the UK it's £13/year (under $20)

Depends what US state you choose. In CA, you pay $800 a year for your LLC.

> An $800 annual tax is generally imposed on limited partnerships (LPs), LLCs, ...

Source: https://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/2020/2020-568-booklet.html

Re: Google can ban your Android app if they think you’ve clicked on your own ads

#50

Post by o-__-o »

rexf wrote: post #49
blibble wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why so expensive? in the UK it's £13/year (under $20)

Depends what US state you choose. In CA, you pay $800 a year for your LLC. > An $800 annual tax is generally imposed on limited partnerships (LPs), LLCs, ... Source: https://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/2020/2020-568-booklet.html

It does depend on the state. I am also including registered agents, physical (mailing address) and digital presence. Depending on the nature of the business, insurance is also included in that cost. I did not include increased accounting costs
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