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Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason

andyibanez.com

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Re: Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason

#211

Post by rjmunro »

nromiun wrote: post #45

> The big problem is that when Apple tells you that the reasons “are not limited” the ones they listed, it could be anything. They could call my face ugly and remove me from the Developer Program under that reason and tell me it was because of “fraud”. Seriously, just how hard is it for these companies to communicate properly? Would it kill them to send something like "We saw X on your account so we are closing your…

> Would it kill them to send something like "We saw X on your account ..."

They fear it would kill their fraud prevention efforts because they'd just be giving evil actors a list of instructions on how to stay as close as possible to their undesirable activities.

Re: Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason

#212

Post by erikw »

jcfields wrote: post #116
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #64

And Apple is not even an isolated case. Google will close gmail accounts, take away adsense revenues, or remove youtube videos on a whim. Visa blocked users from giving their money to political causes they decided didn't aligned with their view of the world. For years Microsoft made it super hard to buy hardware without paying the Windows licence. They killed xbox remotely. They have invasive telemetry in Win 10. Pay…

Amazon suspended my parents' seller account last August or September with no explanation. All listings removed, couldn't log in, no direct customer service number that connects you with someone who knows what's going on, and kept taking the monthly fee anyway. Finally, they closed it entirely (again without explanation) a month or two ago. They're still holding their inventory in their distribution centers, probably…

The incentive to care (in the US at least) is called tort law. Punitive damages against a company the size of Amazon for what sounds to me like theft should be very large. I'm sure that a lawyer would be interested in taking up this case, based on the size of the potential settlement.

Re: Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason

#213

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

bauerd wrote: post #128
kabacha wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At one point abolishing paper cash is even remotely plausible? maybe in 100 years? So far cash rules majority of the world and I don't see it going away any time soon.

Supermarkets already exist that don't accept cash (in NL at least)

Isn't that the case for the Amazon stores?

Re: Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason

#214

Post by sschueller »

ksec wrote: post #108
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #64

And Apple is not even an isolated case. Google will close gmail accounts, take away adsense revenues, or remove youtube videos on a whim. Visa blocked users from giving their money to political causes they decided didn't aligned with their view of the world. For years Microsoft made it super hard to buy hardware without paying the Windows licence. They killed xbox remotely. They have invasive telemetry in Win 10. Pay…

>Visa blocked users from giving their money to political causes they decided didn't aligned with their view of the world. That is why I am absolutely against abolishing paper cash. Edit: I know there are countries where you have a democratically elected representatives and every part of the government and even companies is held ( more or less ) accountable to the people and does not need to worry ( much ) about big b…

Paying with cash also helps small restaurants and cafes. Instead of having to pay 3% and wait 3-5 days until they get the funds which might get charged back they have the money on the spot. No need for all these middle men taking a cut.

Same goes for Uber eats etc. Call the restaurant directly, don't be a dick.

Re: Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason

#215

Post by ryukafalz »

zbentley wrote: post #185
Yetanfou wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that, dear reader, is why you should host your own infrastructure on your own network connection. Besides being cheaper than using hosted services it: - protects you from this type of arbitrary abuse of power - helps in keeping third parties from mining you for all your data - helps in resisting censorship - protects you from surprise changes or cancellations of services (Google Reader, Google+, Microsoft PlaysFo…

> on your own network connection ISPs can ban users just as capriciously as any other company. And they do. Decentralized internet alternatives are both harder to use (and "host your own infrastructure" is already impossibly hard for the vast majority of people) and too limited to be useful. It's time to accept that and emergent behavior of the internet is to become more centralized, not less.

This is where, legally, I think there should be limits. ISPs are effectively utilities, I don’t think they should be able to ban anyone so capriciously.

Beyond that, there are systems we as developers can build to make it easier for users to self-host on small home servers. But if your internet connection is cut off, building an alternative is hardly an option.

Re: Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason

#216

Post by artifact_44 »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #205
duncanawoods wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small shops with card fees is the last remaining hold out for me. Payment systems should be nationalised and run by a country's central bank. It's a very boring infrastructure equivalent to roads. There shouldn't be a private company taxing every single transaction someone makes. Do that and the small stores can drop the fees.

I’m not sure I see your logic here. Do you think the payment networks will be cheaper to operate if they’re run by the government? Or would you prefer an actual tax to the fees you’re comparing to taxes? Do you expect banks would drop their transaction fees? Do you think payment gateways would drop their fees? Do you think payment terminals would become free, and their networks free to use?

Yeah, that is the purpose of a functional government.

Re: Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason

#217

Post by close04 »

erikw wrote: post #212
jcfields wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon suspended my parents' seller account last August or September with no explanation. All listings removed, couldn't log in, no direct customer service number that connects you with someone who knows what's going on, and kept taking the monthly fee anyway. Finally, they closed it entirely (again without explanation) a month or two ago. They're still holding their inventory in their distribution centers, probably…

The incentive to care (in the US at least) is called tort law. Punitive damages against a company the size of Amazon for what sounds to me like theft should be very large. I'm sure that a lawyer would be interested in taking up this case, based on the size of the potential settlement.

What are the chances a small seller will be financially able to litigate with Amazon? And even if they do and win, what are the chances they're in a better position than before, meaning it's not a Pyrrhic victory?

Edit. These are actual questions, the US legal system is very unkind with those without very deep pockets, having the highest litigation costs in the world.

Re: Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason

#218

Post by ryukafalz »

snarfy wrote: post #159
andy_ppp wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have this horrible feeling that you'll soon buy the government you want; Amazon or Facebook Gov is a terrifying idea: "do you want to add on the international development budget for £14.99 per month". I wonder if it would be better than what we currently have?

Representative democracy doesn't really represent me. I want to go online and fill out a long, myers briggs like personality test that judges my political leanings, and then have that data fed to a script that votes on all the issues for me directly, skipping the middlemen. Collectively those scripts would be a far better representation than any human. Replace all politicians with tiny shell scripts.

I like the idea of direct democracy, but I don’t think I’d go that far with it. More appealing here would be to have the ability to delegate my votes on issues in certain sectors to someone I trust. Maybe with a delay so I can override their decision if I disagree with something important.

Re: Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason

#219

Post by paulcarroty »

philliphaydon wrote: post #115
sethammons wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

seems like an easy option for Google would be to set a blocklist of IPs for generating revenue, including the IP used to create the account. Users could add others with the big scary label of "prevent us from banning you, list IPs here that you use" that defaults to your current IP.

Maybe they do something like that now. This was ~10 years ago. @BiteCode_dev's comment resonated with me because it happened to me. There wasn't a warning or anything, just an email terminating my account. Slowly trying to disconnect everything away from google.

Similar story, got an email "your account was blocked, nobody cares, we're so sorry". Yet another reason to avoid Google services.

Re: Apple is threatening to terminate my developer account with no clear reason

#220

Post by dijit »

dnh44 wrote: post #203
dijit wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the issues people have with apple can be applied to most corporations. Don't get me wrong, I think it's abhorrent, but it's something you should think about. I once tried to open a new bank account with my bank of 10y, and set up direct debit to it. The point was that I was going to pay my rent from that new account (both me and a roommate would pay into the account, and a direct-debit would go to the landlord).…

About 10 years ago HSBC got caught helping drug cartels launder money and they got massively fined for it. In the subsequent years they made it really difficult to open an account, but they wouldn't tell people what the hold up was because it's illegal for UK banks to tell customers that they are performing an anti money laundering investigation. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hsbc-probe/hsbc-to-pay-1-...

This explains so much about my experience... Couldn't they have asked me for materials though?

If they had been up front and said "we need payslips in A4 printed format" I would have provided them..

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