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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

#171

Post by [deleted] »

AgentME wrote: post #160
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…

> - Your Amazon shopping account and your AWS account should definitely not be the same account. My Amazon account has been locked for a few days now because I tried to buy a friend a gift card, and I can't even access my AWS account at all. Thankfully all I have on there currently is some old backups in S3, but I previously used AWS for some projects and this could've been a fucking disaster. I tried to buy an Amazo…

[deleted]

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

#172

Post by matkoniecz »

jraph wrote: post #96

Also teach people to use and prefer F-Droid over Google Play when possible, and make your open source app available on it: - no obscure ban for application vendors - no mandatory account for installing apps and from which you can be banned - no user tracking If you don't like vendor lock-ins and its consequences, push for the alternatives.

Is it feasible for anyone attempting to make an app paid in some form? Would they accept any form of ads or requiring login into a paid account?

Note that F-Droid often has build issues, with app version on F-Droid lagging months behind actually released version.

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

#173

Post by mnd999 »

andi999 wrote: post #111
cookiengineer wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can confirm this solid advice. Even at a mega-scale social games publisher like Zynga, we had to deal with automated bans all the time. That's why at one point we used an avatar for each game that was separately managed and was basically a separate identity with a separate bank account with a holding company etc. - Invent an avatar that has their own profile, residence, birth date, gender etc. - Use separate email ad…

How do you make an avatar with a bank account?

They said they used holding companies.

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

#174

Post by nlitened »

Tepix wrote: post #156

Everyone is bashing Google, and rightfully so. I avoid using their services. However, I've also experienced the other side. I've run an online gaming business and we had to ban players that created multiple accounts to cheat. I remember an infamous player whom we kicked out after he created a bunch of accounts and used them to brazenly cheat. He created yet another account and posted on our forums complaining about h…

Google could at least treat differently two kinds of “customers”: anonymous zero-effort freshly registered accounts and actual paying clients who have undergone extensive KYC and have years of history.

I think the main issue is not automated bans, but playing by all rules, jumping through all hoops, and still getting an unappealable ban on a whim.

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

#175

Post by isolli »

KorematsuFred wrote: post #73
jaimex2 wrote: post #2

If there's a good alternative never use Google anything. The sole fact that there is no appeal system to account shutdowns and the way they just kill services at random should be enough reason for anyone.

Google is pretty good at weeding out bad players and all these bad examples are often on margin. Unfortunately the bad guys are getting more and more sophisticated. Google is not entitled to admit every publisher into their program but needs to provide enough assurance to advertisers that their money will be well spent. Hence they are likely to make mistakes on side of caution. This hurts developers like us but it be…

They could alleviate a lot of pain with a proper appeals process.

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

#176

Post by epicalex »

AgentME wrote: post #160
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…

> - Your Amazon shopping account and your AWS account should definitely not be the same account. My Amazon account has been locked for a few days now because I tried to buy a friend a gift card, and I can't even access my AWS account at all. Thankfully all I have on there currently is some old backups in S3, but I previously used AWS for some projects and this could've been a fucking disaster. I tried to buy an Amazo…

I've just had a similar experience with ebay.

About 75% of the times I log on to ebay, (no exaggeration, I only purchase something a few times a year and this happens almost every time), my account gets locked for suspected unauthorised access and I'm forced to reset my password.

I have a static IP, and only ever use the same two devices. I have a strong unique password.

I spent 15 minutes on the phone with their account security team who could tell me nothing about what triggered the lock, nor did they have any advice on what I could do to prevent this from recurring.

Something in their automated system is giving a false positive, and neither I nor seemingly anyone on the account security team has any way to address it.

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

#177

Post by franga2000 »

cube00 wrote: post #163
franga2000 wrote: post #158

I keep reading about all of these people who got their Google accounts nuked, both business and personal, and keep wondering how there hasn't been a class-action lawsuit yet. Their marketing says "your data in the cloud, safe", but then uploading a single copyrighted movie to GDrive (even if you don't share it) can result in not only losing access to all your other unrelated files, but also emails, app purchases, etc…

If they're banning a free account and you haven't suffered any monetary loss I doubt if the court will take kindly to its time being wasted with a case like this. Any argument about data loss would be put back on you with "back up better next time"

Many people have spent money with Google: Google Play purchases, Google One, Youtube Premium, whatever music service they're pushing these days, Google Domains, AdSense, a linked GApps account for your business... Some dude is already suing Apple for deleting his iCloud account that had a bunch of app purchases on it.

But monetary loss is far from the only thing you can sue someone over. If you can sue a store that you never even went into because you walked past it an slipped on ice that was technically on their property, twisting your ankle (and in many places, you can), I see no reason why you shouldn't be a able to sue Google for deleting your entire digital life (keep in mind that basically everything is tied to your email), even if you were using their services for free.

I know I'd much rather break my leg than have to deal with the disaster that would ensue if my Gmail were deleted, and I've been slowly migrating off of it for years now.

Edit: I guess a better analogy would be a company providing free warehose space (maybe for a temporary opening promo). They market it as a safe warehouse so you put your stuff in there, then they take it and shred it. In response they say that their parent company also owns a convenience store chain and one time, you looked at a cashier there funny. They point you to the ToS that is printed on the roof of the warehouse in 12pt Comic Sans.

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

#178

Post by skinkestek »

smcl wrote: post #76
busymom0 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here we go again with the "white supremacist" boogeyman. Not worth discussing this because such discussions never change anyone's minds.

Well we are talking about companies with questionable ethical practices. It would be weird to NOT mention the neo-nazi tolerance when suggesting epik in a discussion like this.

As someone who has a lot to lose if nazis ever get back in power:

isn't the correct thing to still register their domains and just go to the police with it?

Based on my sysadmin background I actively try to know as little about my customers as possible: sure I might become a hero whistleblower but more likely I'll taint myself in various ways.

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

#179

Post by smsm42 »

Reading the email exchanges there, I got a clear understanding that Google process is built in a way that makes impossible for a common person (without side channels to somebody important at Google or ability to cause massive bad press to them) to get any resolution. Moreover, support people (if those are people and not scripts?) don't even know what it is about, they just repeat "you violated policy X, see document Y, okthxbye" until you give up. They don't know how one violates policy X or what can be done about it, they just see some record "violated policy X" and have to compose (likely copy-paste) email to the complainer about it, so they shut up and go away.

I am still amazed people invest so much time and effort into Android apps that can be squashed like a bug for no reason at all, just because nobody cares enough to fix the utterly broken syustem.

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

#180

Post by skinkestek »

nextlevelwizard wrote: post #81
colanderman wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many content creators are starting to move to a Patreon+Twitch model, in addition to YouTube.

Works if you are only delivering live videos. I've never been able to get into Twitch because there is so much dead time without anything interesting happening. Patreon only works if you already have established fan base that is willing to pay for your content. It does not help with discoverability at all. Youtube is still the king of video no matter how you slice it.

> Youtube is still the king of video no matter how you slice it.

For now.

Rumble might or might not break through to mainstream.

Same with those fediverse solutions for different reasons.

Vimeo already works beautifully and is clean in every way AFAIK.

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