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Google bans my events app for referencing Covid-19, or related terms

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Google bans my events app for referencing Covid-19, or related terms

#111

Post by soylentcola »

btilly wrote: post #104
koheripbal wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can someone remind me why there is an "app store" that is run by the phone OS maker? Aside from the anti-trust/monopoly type issue, should there be a more market healthy de-coupling between the place I buy my apps and the OS maker? Monopolies are almost always bad for consumers. I kind of chuckle when I think about how Microsoft had such a huge battle over IE being integrated into Windows, and now we sort of accept a…

Apple created the app store because they wanted to avoid having people install malware. Google copied them because they wanted a piece of the app store tax.

So Apple's motivations were solely altruistic, whereas mean old Google is just a money grubbing copycat?

I'm being snarky, but it seems a little naive to think either of these companies wasn't eager to capitalize on the lucrative mobile software market. Aren't you also prevented from buying subscriptions or making other in-app purchases within iOS apps (but not through the app store's integrated system)? Seems like that has little to do with malware as it's not just a ban on malicious IAP, but rather any type of IAP that doesn't include the "app store tax" as you put it.

I think both the Google and Apple stores purport to be a generally safe repository of mobile software in order to encourage the sale and distribution of apps, strengthen the appeal of their respective platforms, and generate revenue by providing these markets (for a cut).

Re: Google bans my events app for referencing Covid-19, or related terms

#112

Post by nihil75 »

mediaman wrote: post #100

Slightly different topic, but Google also suspended our company's adwords account, I believe for using keywords related to COVID-19. The business is an American manufacturer that added capacity to manufacture PPE to make up for the lack of Chinese supply. Since we were supplying direct to the market, the prices of the PPE were in-market from before COVID times, or cheaper. We weren't out to make a killing, just to fi…

Welcome to the club. Don't get your hopes up getting the ban lifted. Had my startup AdWords account banned because we developed dApps using Solidity and Google didn't like Ethereum at the time.

After countless email replies from "Emily" - the Google support bot, and actual phone hangups from the call center, we gave up.

And there are plenty of other examples out there.

Re: Google bans my events app for referencing Covid-19, or related terms

#113

Post by Groxx »

berdario wrote: post #107
Groxx wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flaw appears to be that there is no way to validate in external storage, since the contents can be changed after validation. Which, yes, is a reason to not use external storage. But for large downloads it's undeniably the norm, since internal storage is frequently limited. Since Android doesn't appear to provide a way to use the SD card and also prevent this, that part of it is an Android flaw IMO. As evidence, n…

They shouldn't have used external storage while using API for silent installs, full stop. https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/data/data-storage... The fact that the norm is different is a good point, but the norm is also not to implement your own app stores. In fact, if internal storage is so limited that you don't have space for the APK, you'll get errors due to lack of space even while installing apps from t…

Sure, normally you need about 2x to install anything (both apps are kept until the new version is done and validated). But that's less than the 3x, if you also kept the download there.

Anyway. Yeah, silent installs make this dangerous, no disagreement there at all (tho they're always more dangerous. I'd prefer to never have them). But there's also no reason that Android can't provide a protected external store, except that they've been self-destructively hostile to external storage in any form. It won't work if you remove the SDCard and manipulate it elsewhere, but that's not the attack vector here - it's entirely possible to protect from things on-device, just like they do for internal storage. They even partially achieve it now, with "adopted" internal storage, so it's absolutely possible.

Re: Google bans my events app for referencing Covid-19, or related terms

#114

Post by solotronics »

mediaman wrote: post #100

Slightly different topic, but Google also suspended our company's adwords account, I believe for using keywords related to COVID-19. The business is an American manufacturer that added capacity to manufacture PPE to make up for the lack of Chinese supply. Since we were supplying direct to the market, the prices of the PPE were in-market from before COVID times, or cheaper. We weren't out to make a killing, just to fi…

Why don't people start lawsuits against them for these unfair business practices? If the damages to your company are small you can even file a local small claims court case. https://kahlerfinancial.com/financial-awakenings/weekly-colu...

Re: Google bans my events app for referencing Covid-19, or related terms

#115

Post by ancarda »

nocturnial wrote: post #10
leppr wrote: post #8

I've long wished there was a more encompassing alternative to F-Droid, which would include the same payment facilities as Google Play (paid app, in-app payments, subscriptions), allow proprietary apps (but still give FOSS as a search filter and show it as a prominent feature on the app page), and offer plenty of user curation features ala Steam and make filters optional (which would allow communities of independent r…

Epic games tried to side step google: > When Fortnite launched on mobile in 2018, Epic Games very notably sidestepped the Google Play Store and pushed users to download the title directly from their website, an effort made to avoid the substantial revenue cuts that Google takes from in-app purchases of Play Store downloads. After 18 months of harsh rhetoric regarding platform gatekeeping, Epic Games says that Fortnit…

>new efforts such as Google Play Protect to outright block software obtained outside the Google Play store

Wait a sec, does this affect F-Droid as well?

Re: Google bans my events app for referencing Covid-19, or related terms

#116

Post by bbarn »

cryptoquick wrote: post #5

Google is just such an awful, despicable company, that I've actually moved everything I can from their platform. It wasn't easy, I'd been a Gmail user for nearly 15 years. I'd rather pay Microsoft a hundred bucks a year than support them. That's how much I hate Google.

I've had a private email address and domain for years, sending and recieving via gmail. I'm looking to move away from gmail to some other hosted solution that I can keep my personal domain emails with, without having to have my own SMTP servers running. Any suggestions?

Re: Google bans my events app for referencing Covid-19, or related terms

#117

Post by rsj_hn »

Sargos wrote: post #101
mkhpalm wrote: post #91

Simple solution is to just stop writing apps for Google's platform. There are other avenues that aren't dependent on the corp whims of entities you can't really talk to.

Not really. The only other option is to limit your service to only desktop PCs/websites which is not super helpful to normal people that just use their phones for everything. Google has a monopoly on phone apps. If they don't like your app then you pretty much don't exist. You don't have many options.

"Normal people" do not just use their phones for everything. Normal people use their phones for getting around and they stare at the screen when they are bored, for example waiting for a bus or waiting in line.

When they want to do real work or real play they don't do it on their phone, they need a larger form factor with more power, a bigger screen, and better input technology, whether that is a laptop/desktop or game console.

This idea that if something isn't available on your phone, then it's not available is silly. There are many things that, while you can technically put on a phone, really don't thrive there. Phones are low powered, minimal form factor devices with inferior inputs. You do stuff on the phone because the benefit of doing it from any location far surpasses the unpleasantness of the interface. For example getting a cab, or figuring out how to get from A to B, or sending a quick message to someone when you are away from the house.

If it's not related to helping you move around from place to place, or helping you connect to a friend quickly, it's not going to thrive on the phone even if you put it there, and if you look at the usage statistics of phone apps versus regular PC apps, you'll see this confirmed.

Re: Google bans my events app for referencing Covid-19, or related terms

#118

Post by Lammy »

koheripbal wrote: post #66
Kye wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23219427

Can someone remind me why there is an "app store" that is run by the phone OS maker? Aside from the anti-trust/monopoly type issue, should there be a more market healthy de-coupling between the place I buy my apps and the OS maker? Monopolies are almost always bad for consumers. I kind of chuckle when I think about how Microsoft had such a huge battle over IE being integrated into Windows, and now we sort of accept a…

It was an upgrade over app stores run by your mobile carrier, which is what it replaced at least in USA.

Re: Google bans my events app for referencing Covid-19, or related terms

#119

Post by DrJokepu »

bbarn wrote: post #116
cryptoquick wrote: post #5

Google is just such an awful, despicable company, that I've actually moved everything I can from their platform. It wasn't easy, I'd been a Gmail user for nearly 15 years. I'd rather pay Microsoft a hundred bucks a year than support them. That's how much I hate Google.

I've had a private email address and domain for years, sending and recieving via gmail. I'm looking to move away from gmail to some other hosted solution that I can keep my personal domain emails with, without having to have my own SMTP servers running. Any suggestions?

Had very good experiences with FastMail.

Re: Google bans my events app for referencing Covid-19, or related terms

#120

Post by cosmotic »

solotronics wrote: post #114
mediaman wrote: post #100

Slightly different topic, but Google also suspended our company's adwords account, I believe for using keywords related to COVID-19. The business is an American manufacturer that added capacity to manufacture PPE to make up for the lack of Chinese supply. Since we were supplying direct to the market, the prices of the PPE were in-market from before COVID times, or cheaper. We weren't out to make a killing, just to fi…

Why don't people start lawsuits against them for these unfair business practices? If the damages to your company are small you can even file a local small claims court case. https://kahlerfinancial.com/financial-awakenings/weekly-colu...

Small claims isn't always a cake walk. The defendant can pay to upgrade to general division, turning the somewhat informal case into a full-fledged case.
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