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Google terminated our startup's developer account – what do we do?

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Re: Google terminated our startup's developer account – what do we do?

#51

Post by mindslight »

rootusrootus wrote: post #22
mindslight wrote: post #4

I've got to wonder if, after basic Twit-shaming becomes no longer scalable, Google support will basically end up taking the same essential shape as IRS support - if you receive a nastygram, you turn it over to your professional account/attorney/googvocate who's entire specialty is knowing how to "talk to" the organization.

That is not a great comparison. IRS phone support is actually pretty good. I would be ecstatic if Google could get even halfway there.

Point taken, and having seen published phone numbers for various specialty IRS attorneys I did actually think about making a quip to that effect. Furthermore, the IRC itself is more understandable than Google's (et al) "AI"-dartboards.

But the comparison is still appropriate due to the sheer gravity of both situations. If your issue hadn't been worked out over the phone (say it required more subjective interpretation), you likely would have hired someone. Nobody wants to get walked on by an 800lb gorilla.

Re: Google terminated our startup's developer account – what do we do?

#52

Post by zentiggr »

nukeop wrote: post #6

So now anyone who has ever owned a terminated account is a Typhoid Mary and as Google refuses to provide any details about their bans and cuts all communications with banned accounts, it's like being exiled by a commandment from high above. People talk about possible future AI abuses but here we are with people getting abused by an AI system right now. Being banned from ever having a Google Play account is a death se…

Sounds like F-Droid and/or self-signed downloadable .apks are the immediate alternatives, and perhaps if that becomes enough of a percentage of app installs, somebody in the Play Store command chain will realize they're shooting the golden goose.

We can hope?

Re: Google terminated our startup's developer account – what do we do?

#53

Post by josteink »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #23
noonespecial wrote: post #16

They seem to think they have plenty of developers to burn through like this as if they were some sort of consumable. But if every developer who has been banned can get other developers banned just by association, this will start slow and then move like an epidemic. They don't know it yet but unchecked this will seem to them to instantly become an existential threat to the play store. There's nothing like a geometric…

Google is already established as a god awful vendor partner. It’s reflected in their cloud divisions performance. Anyone sane is using someone else if they can.

I literally know zero people using Google Cloud. Everyone is on Amazon or Azure.

I can count the times google has burnt my hand though...

Re: Google terminated our startup's developer account – what do we do?

#54

Post by itronitron »

acheron wrote: post #12
Animats wrote: post #11

Pivot to a product that doesn't require Google approval? All the top apps today come from big companies. Mostly Google, in fact. The era of the app startup is over. Why do you want to compete with Google while under the control of Google? If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever. - Orwell

This is Google, so the boot has ads on it.

if it's a sandal, then the sock could have ads on it

Re: Google terminated our startup's developer account – what do we do?

#55

Post by enobrev »

rootusrootus wrote: post #22
mindslight wrote: post #4

I've got to wonder if, after basic Twit-shaming becomes no longer scalable, Google support will basically end up taking the same essential shape as IRS support - if you receive a nastygram, you turn it over to your professional account/attorney/googvocate who's entire specialty is knowing how to "talk to" the organization.

That is not a great comparison. IRS phone support is actually pretty good. I would be ecstatic if Google could get even halfway there.

I've had to work with the IRS in two separate instances in my life and both times they were helpful, patient, and went above and beyond to make sure matters were resolved properly.

Re: Google terminated our startup's developer account – what do we do?

#56

Post by freedomben »

stevens32 wrote: post #40
freedomben wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Pivot to a product that doesn't require Google approval? Honest question: what do you pivot too? Apple has different but equally bad risks of having your hands tied or just being barred. What's a safe platform to build on these days that actually has a market?

You could pivot to a PWA and rely on others channels to get the word out

Ah nice, that's a good idea. I hope PWAs continue to become more and more viable.

Re: Google terminated our startup's developer account – what do we do?

#57

Post by em500 »

crooked-v wrote: post #48
on_and_off wrote: post #29

TLDR : The guy that opened the company's account had got his own account terminated years ago. So their company account was closed as associated to that one. I don't know what got in that guy's head when he created that account, google is very strict when it comes to terminated devs trying to republish apps.

I'm not comfortable with the idea that Google can effectively dictate the employment prospects of all Android developers forever, regardless of past behavior.

Lifetime bans are pretty harsh, but some form of time-based penalty is probably quite reasonable to keep out truly bad actors and recidivists. (Even with the current measures, the Play store was/is teeming with malware and scammers.)

Perhaps some simple form of exponentially increasing penalty (start with 3 months, double/triple/quadruple at every next ban).

Re: Google terminated our startup's developer account – what do we do?

#58

Post by mehrdadn »

mindslight wrote: post #4

I've got to wonder if, after basic Twit-shaming becomes no longer scalable, Google support will basically end up taking the same essential shape as IRS support - if you receive a nastygram, you turn it over to your professional account/attorney/googvocate who's entire specialty is knowing how to "talk to" the organization.

I hope you've had a bad experience with the IRS because otherwise it's really frustrating to see the government-targeted analog of libel. Imagine working hard and professionally to serve your country only to have your reputation tarnished like this.

Re: Google terminated our startup's developer account – what do we do?

#59

Post by em500 »

deogeo wrote: post #31
jayd16 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like the full story is always less than reputable contractors. Set up fresh accounts yourself, people!

They were banned for 'association' - that makes me believe that even if you set up a fresh account yourself, if someone that was previously banned works on it, and Google finds out, you could still be banned. Also, banned by Google != less than reputable.

Some form of 'association' is probably unavoidable, otherwise it would be trivial to game for truly bad actors.

Big problem is that the current policy seems to insufficiently discriminatory between bad actors and accidental policy infringement. Perhaps they can start with short bans and rapidly increase ban length on recidivism.

Re: Google terminated our startup's developer account – what do we do?

#60

Post by jedberg »

josteink wrote: post #53
godzillabrennus wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is already established as a god awful vendor partner. It’s reflected in their cloud divisions performance. Anyone sane is using someone else if they can.

I literally know zero people using Google Cloud. Everyone is on Amazon or Azure. I can count the times google has burnt my hand though...

I know one person that is using Google Cloud for his company. He used to work at YouTube, so it's very handy for him since it works very similarly. But otherwise I don't know anyone using it for any production workloads.
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