Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats • Hacker News Board

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#291

Post by jimmaswell » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 12:29 AM UTC

blacklight wrote: post #281

Time to go back to distributing direct apk files and setting up self-hosted stores to manage updates. The Play Store was supposed to be only an interface for searching and installing packages, like aptitude or yum. Then it started taking arbitrary decisions "for the benefit of the users" (of course, Google always knows what's best for its users, even more than the users themselves). Then, like the guy who loves the s…

Why is the comment suggesting f-droid killed? So many comments are [dead] on here for no good reason lately. F-Droid seems like a decent idea to me.

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#292

Post by GeekyBear » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 12:51 AM UTC

privacyking wrote: post #240

horsawlarway wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They aren't preventing surveillance at all, they're monopolizing it. Google is LITERALLY a fucking ad company. Apple is tracking the exact time and location you use any piece of software on their systems (Don't worry guys, it's just for security purposes! /s) ---- I'm no longer sympathetic to the "They're securing my device from the boogeyman!" argument. It has the same overtures as "Won't anyone think of the childre…

> Apple is tracking the exact time and location... Source?

Apple is using an industry standard protocol to check and see if an application's developer certificate has been revoked.

>To make sure the certificate hasn’t been revoked, macOS uses OCSP—short for the industry standard Online Certificate Status Protocol—to check its validity.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/11/mac-certificate-chec...

There is no information tracking the application that is sent.

The protocol is only used to check and see if the developer's certificate is still valid, if the app hasn't been run in some time.

https://blog.jacopo.io/en/post/apple-ocsp/

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#293

Post by elihu » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 1:05 AM UTC

horsawlarway wrote: post #217

dgregd wrote: post #199

I run a small company and offer an app to monitor sales reps work. Managers use it also to see how much time employees spend in the field. To count how much time is spend in some specific location my app uses background location updates. 10 years ago I was distributing just the apk file. Then I moved to Play store. It turned out that most people on their company owned Android devices don't configure Play Store. App u…

Good - There's a clear theme in the motivations of both major mobile OS companies here: You, a 3rd party developer making custom software products for a mobile platform, are no longer allowed to have customers yourself. Instead you must grovel and beg and pray that our lords Apple/Google consent to allow you to rent their customers. This consent can be revoked at any time, you will pay through the nose for it (20%+ o…

What's currently stopping some third party from creating a fork of Android with a better store? Are there closed-source parts of Android that can't be easily replicated? Is it the difficulty of getting any major phone manufacturers to agree to install it? Or something else or all of the above?

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#294

Post by saurik » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 1:29 AM UTC

SilasX wrote: post #276

saurik wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This "came out" at least 8 months ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23273247 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23281564

I appreciate the further context, but am not sure that it was necessary to mock my phrasing.

(I wrote a giant response to this explaining why I was frustrated and who I was frustrated with and how it meant we were just screwed as a society, but I have decided to just suffice it to note that I am not mocking your phrasing--that is the correct phrasing for the demoralizing thought--and that, FWIW, I don't think iOS does this in the same way, even for the "enterprise"-signed software where one would expect it would work identically, which is a bit hilarious.)

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#295

Post by exikyut » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 1:30 AM UTC

jonas21 wrote: post #274

saagarjha wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it let you file an appeal?

No, you can only appeal after you've been rejected. This update has neither been approved nor rejected -- it's just stuck "In Review". You can ask for an expedited review, which I did on day 6. I got a form letter back saying that my request was "escalated for continued handling". But it doesn't seem to have made any difference.

> No, you can only appeal after you've been rejected.

How To Make A Mathematically Perfectly Infuriating Traffic Jam 101 :(

> [...] [M]y request was "escalated for continued handling". But it doesn't seem to have made any difference.

Your status was upgraded to "waiting faster" :D

Hides

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#296

Post by monocasa » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 1:33 AM UTC

jimmaswell wrote: post #291

blacklight wrote: post #281

Time to go back to distributing direct apk files and setting up self-hosted stores to manage updates. The Play Store was supposed to be only an interface for searching and installing packages, like aptitude or yum. Then it started taking arbitrary decisions "for the benefit of the users" (of course, Google always knows what's best for its users, even more than the users themselves). Then, like the guy who loves the s…

Why is the comment suggesting f-droid killed? So many comments are [dead] on here for no good reason lately. F-Droid seems like a decent idea to me.

That user appears to be shadowbanned; all of their comments start off as dead until someone vouches for them.

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#297

Post by kwdc » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 1:34 AM UTC

Actual Linux on mobiles can't come soon enough.

Google aren't running AI on these listings. Its just a regex and perhaps some graph queries to pick up suspicious activity. I doubt any appeal will work unless the social media angle gets large enough. Maybe they should try twitter as well.

Think yourself lucky in these circumstances that you even know the actual reason for the suspension and not just some generic message like "it violates our T&Cs".

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#298

Post by meibo » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 1:43 AM UTC

Blikkentrekker wrote: post #200

bambax wrote: post #150

> Your app contains content that doesn't comply with the Sexual Content and Profanity policy. What the fuck is "profanity"? Are we a religious society? Why shouldn't we able to say "ass" (!) or show nipples?? The ban on porn is defensible outside of any moral framework because once you allow porn then all what's left is porn (although it would be useful to think about why that is). But "profanity"? Come on.

> The ban on porn is defensible outside of any moral framework because once you allow porn then all what's left is porn (although it would be useful to think about why that is). Reddit and 8chan allow the creation of pornography subboards and never even approached that state.

That's because they both allow for creation of very segregated sub-groups that don't inherently interact. You won't see a lot of porn on /r/all because Reddit doesn't want you to, even though at least 50% of Reddit is porn, it's just bad for business.

It's basically a "mini internet".

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#299

Post by quarantine » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 1:58 AM UTC

elihu wrote: post #293

horsawlarway wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good - There's a clear theme in the motivations of both major mobile OS companies here: You, a 3rd party developer making custom software products for a mobile platform, are no longer allowed to have customers yourself. Instead you must grovel and beg and pray that our lords Apple/Google consent to allow you to rent their customers. This consent can be revoked at any time, you will pay through the nose for it (20%+ o…

What's currently stopping some third party from creating a fork of Android with a better store? Are there closed-source parts of Android that can't be easily replicated? Is it the difficulty of getting any major phone manufacturers to agree to install it? Or something else or all of the above?

The Google play framework is closed source and used by most apps.

Re: Suspended from Google Play for listing supported subtitle formats

#300

Post by phasnox » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 2:03 AM UTC

blacklight wrote: post #281

Time to go back to distributing direct apk files and setting up self-hosted stores to manage updates. The Play Store was supposed to be only an interface for searching and installing packages, like aptitude or yum. Then it started taking arbitrary decisions "for the benefit of the users" (of course, Google always knows what's best for its users, even more than the users themselves). Then, like the guy who loves the s…

Why not use PWAs?