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Google is forcing us to make our open source VoIP app worse

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Re: Google is forcing us to make our open source VoIP app worse

#161

Post by anikom15 »

nemothekid wrote: post #56
asdff wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the same time, why not just release at least one phone that is developer friendly? People can handle it. All these issues are present on computers that are able to run unsigned code, have sensitive personal info stored on them, etc. Yet the sky is not falling with all this going on with everyone's computer on earth, like how people fear the sky will fall if we opened up the mobile phone.

> Yet the sky is not falling with all this going on with everyone's computer on earth, like how people fear the sky will fall if we opened up the mobile phone. This is because everything was moved to the web and users were beaten over the head with a hammer to never install anything on their computers. The sky was falling and subsequently the desktop software platform hardly exists today.

How exactly was the sky falling?

Re: Google is forcing us to make our open source VoIP app worse

#162

Post by p1necone »

savy91 wrote: post #133

We develop a banking app for families (parents and kids). 2 weeks ago we had to remove the possibility to pick phone contacts to invite other family members because Google claimed we were uploading contacts to our servers (which we did not). We appealed and it did not work. We then complied with their request and added to the privacy policy they we have access to the contacts and we might process them, and yet Google…

I don't think google did anything wrong here (at least in the first half), afaik android app privacy permissions don't differentiate between "app has access to contacts locally" and "app has access to contacts remotely".

Probably because this would require thorough code review every time you shipped an update to ascertain as opposed to just identifying whether you accessed a specific API or not.

Re: Google is forcing us to make our open source VoIP app worse

#163

Post by Nextgrid »

duxup wrote: post #122
LtWorf wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't matter if you want to pay or not. These companies need to make more money than they did the previous quarter. So they need to always find new way to exploit continuously.

Plenty of apps and services are happy to take money and have no advertising and etc.

Source?

Even Apple eventually caved in and is now starting to turn towards the advertising route.

Re: Google is forcing us to make our open source VoIP app worse

#164

Post by [deleted] »

secretsatan wrote: post #40

I kinda sorta see google’s side. There are just too many shady operators out there who will swear blind they’re completely honest, and maybe they are, but they also employed a third party to write code or maybe just imported a 3rd party lib (i am in no way saying this is the case) As to, why don’t they look at the code? bugger that being standard practise, i’m not handing over my code to google or apple. Even if they…

[deleted]

Re: Google is forcing us to make our open source VoIP app worse

#165

Post by qwerty456127 »

The problem is the same as always - automated bullshit black-holing instead of thoughtful review and constructive communication a human could do. Perhaps the latter is impossible (or maybe this is another bullshit) for companies with userbases this huge but do we really need such in the first place?

Re: Google is forcing us to make our open source VoIP app worse

#166

Post by taneq »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #165

The problem is the same as always - automated bullshit black-holing instead of thoughtful review and constructive communication a human could do. Perhaps the latter is impossible (or maybe this is another bullshit) for companies with userbases this huge but do we really need such in the first place?

It’s very difficult to convince a marketing behemoth that their automated systems are harmful when those automated systems’ errors drive users towards said behemoth’s own offerings.

Re: Google is forcing us to make our open source VoIP app worse

#167

Post by r2sk5t »

We had this issue and went back and forth with Google for weeks with no progress. It was infuriating, since the peeps on the other end just cut and pasted responses.

Then, we hashed the Contacts before uploading them and our app was immediately approved.

Subsequently, they decided to ding us on this permission "QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES", which we needed for inviting people you know to our app. Since we were so beaten down, we removed that feature. Congrats Google!

Re: Google is forcing us to make our open source VoIP app worse

#168

Post by bdcravens »

grishka wrote: post #115
turminal wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, good luck with that. Nearly nobody installs apps from outside Google Play.

Huh? One example: everyone did sideload Pokemon Go in 2016 because its availability on Google Play was very limited for a very long time.

So all they need is 20 years to build up a fanbase in a product universe worth tens of billions of dollars and everyone will be clamoring to sideload their app as well.

Re: Google is forcing us to make our open source VoIP app worse

#169

Post by alerighi »

Even if the app uploads contacts to a server, is that a big deal? A lot of apps do that: WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram, Microsoft Teams, basically any messaging application. Of curse the app should ask permission to do so in accordance to local laws (such as GDPR if we are in Europe), but it shouldn't be a concern of Google.

Re: Google is forcing us to make our open source VoIP app worse

#170

Post by esprehn »

r2sk5t wrote: post #167

We had this issue and went back and forth with Google for weeks with no progress. It was infuriating, since the peeps on the other end just cut and pasted responses. Then, we hashed the Contacts before uploading them and our app was immediately approved. Subsequently, they decided to ding us on this permission "QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES", which we needed for inviting people you know to our app. Since we were so beaten down,…

Why do you need to know every app installed on the device to invite people you know?
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