Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 607 posts

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#71

Post by nso »

pnw_hazor wrote: post #59
icebraining wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would that lawsuit allege? Under contract law, companies have a right to terminate their dealings with others, for any or no reason. Maybe it would be good if there was a law restricting that for these platforms, but as far as I know, there isn't. So I don't see how a lawsuit could be successful.

The claim could be something related to interfering with their business. "GOOG agreed to provide my company a service that we have reasonably relied on"..."GOOG struck my app for no cause causing my business damage..." and so on. Though, in-real-life, people who use google services have probably agreed to terms to bar any such claim.

In many countries a ToS is not legally binding, as its not considered a legal contract.

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#72

Post by iamsb »

dollar wrote: post #3

The easiest way to identify a monopoly is to look at how badly a company can treat its customers and still get away with it. My company has a half dozen stories like this about Google in the last year alone. Know what Google is doing to its AdSense partners on a massive scale? They wait until your site has just under the earnings when they have to write you a check, then they terminate your AdSense account for “polic…

I never been to silicon valley, so my knowledge about it is extremely limited. But last couple of years, I am hearing so many stories from big tech companies - from google to facebook to snapchat to uber - that I wonder if there is a big culture issue in valley based companies.

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#74

Post by cbanek »

dollar wrote: post #3

The easiest way to identify a monopoly is to look at how badly a company can treat its customers and still get away with it. My company has a half dozen stories like this about Google in the last year alone. Know what Google is doing to its AdSense partners on a massive scale? They wait until your site has just under the earnings when they have to write you a check, then they terminate your AdSense account for “polic…

This also makes me feel even more strongly that the FTC should really clamp down on these very strict app stores.

https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/amicus_briefs/app...

Both the App Store and Google Play stores I think are basically illegal monopolies. I should be able to install whatever app I want, without having to jailbreak my phone and deal with warranty nonsense from the manufacturer. Just like my computer, which I can also install whatever software I want on it.

Both the mandatory fees, and the review policy are terrible. Both Apple and Google could just as easily "recommend" an app as "safe and following best practices" rather than banning them from the app store. And still, many apps get through the nonsense, which has been real joy for scammers and possibly illegal money laundering:

https://medium.com/@johnnylin/how-to-make-80-000-per-month-o...

I get that they want to protect their brand, but really, I think that horse is out of the barn.

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#75

Post by ddalex »

pnw_hazor wrote: post #45
ddalex wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not having worked at Google yet, but having plenty of experience with other big companies: things are not black and white. There is no "evil" per se, it's just a shit load of conflicting interests, different priorities and different pressures at play: nobody wakes up in the morning and decides "I'm gonna fuck up this webmasters day today for the sake of it". It just happens that some innocent people end up in an unfo…

People who work for Google are supporting a company that is building the dystopia my children will have to deal with. Google programmers have other options. But the pay and prestige is not there. I can understand why people work at GOOG and FB. But it does not absolve them from being part of the problem (a big part of problem). But there is no reason for people who work at GOOG to be respected for working there or ot…

> building the dystopia my children will have to deal with

So you want other people to fight your ideological battles. If this would be 4chan I'd tell you that those programmers are "not your personal army". But have you considered that those people are actually happy to be building this dystopia and they think building it will advance their own children? And what you might construe as "evil" they would see as "advancing the future" and making the world a better place?

Kidding aside, don't you think a bit presumptuous on your side to go and simply ask people to stop working where you don't like them to work, as they might be owning you something?

A more fair course of action would be you to go out and build a better working place, one that doesn't build said dystopia, one with better perks and reputation and pay, and those programmers working at FB / Google would actually WANT to quit said companies and come work at this better place?

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#76

Post by kalleboo »

pnw_hazor wrote: post #66
robk wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course they wait until a payout to do a deeper analysis. Most sites that sign up are spam and fraud that never earn much. So a payout threshold is a natural way of gating the spending of resources to weed out fraud and junk.

Meanwhile they collect money from the advertisers. Does Google credit the advertisers when they cancel click-bait websites/apps? I know Google has a refund process that ad buyers can try to use if they have evidence of fraud. However, does Google pro-actively do refunds when they cancel fraud sites/apps?

The email they send when you're terminated claims they refund the advertisers

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#77

Post by floatingatoll »

auslander wrote: post #50

Was there Facebook Audience Network SDK in this open source app?

It's on GitHub in case you'd like to answer that question by source inspection. I'm not familiar with Android so I can't do so for you, sorry:

https://mtransitapps.github.io/

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#78

Post by javert »

cbanek wrote: post #74
dollar wrote: post #3

The easiest way to identify a monopoly is to look at how badly a company can treat its customers and still get away with it. My company has a half dozen stories like this about Google in the last year alone. Know what Google is doing to its AdSense partners on a massive scale? They wait until your site has just under the earnings when they have to write you a check, then they terminate your AdSense account for “polic…

This also makes me feel even more strongly that the FTC should really clamp down on these very strict app stores. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/amicus_briefs/app... Both the App Store and Google Play stores I think are basically illegal monopolies. I should be able to install whatever app I want, without having to jailbreak my phone and deal with warranty nonsense from the manufacturer. Just like my comp…

Not this again. (pardon my sarcasm, no intent to offend.)

There was a point in time when Microsoft was deeply embedding its really shitty and uber insecure Internet Explorer into Windows and causing all sorts of very severe problems problems. If that had continued, the world would have switched to free software. It was inevitable.

But the government stepped in and forced Microsoft to make a just marginally better product, and thus free software never really had its day.

If you want to have an open app store, just wait until Google and Apple become unbearable and people naturally start switching to a more open/free alternative. If you get the government to force Google and Apple to make better software, they will still have a duopoly in 10 or 20 years.

Software companies making shitty stuff, left alone, will die naturally. Capitalism is creative destruction, and all that.

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#79

Post by v7p1Qbt1im »

jacquesm wrote: post #6
techntoke wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would want any company that is abusing their power to face consequences. However, it wouldn't surprise me one bit to find out that some of these companies complaining about getting banned are legitimately doing something wrong and their only cards to play are hoping for a political reaction, rather than suing Google in court and being exposed for why they were actually banned.

Sure. But it wouldn't surprise me one bit either if there was an active policy on the part of Google that optimized for profits at the expense of the rest of the world either. See, if a company can do something for years then the least thing you can do is explain why they've been banned, 'policy violation' is such a great fig-leaf for a lot of trickery that it should be a requirement to spell out exactly what the vio…

Ironically you are giving Google to much credit. There is no real way to improve enforcement. At this insane scale, and with the extreme level of sophistication from scammers, and the privacy expectation from users it‘s almost impossible to do more than they are. Someone else said it further up. They can‘t just let employees snoop around in personably identifying data. Nor would you want that, right?

The fact is, as bad as Google is sometimes about user privacy and „borg behavior“. Their adversaries (malvertising, spammers, clickfarms, bot-armies, state actors) are so committed to manipulating humans for money and/or influence, that they must be hindered wherever possible. It‘s the war for attention. And it‘s only going to get more intense.

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#80

Post by aviraldg »

cbanek wrote: post #74
dollar wrote: post #3

The easiest way to identify a monopoly is to look at how badly a company can treat its customers and still get away with it. My company has a half dozen stories like this about Google in the last year alone. Know what Google is doing to its AdSense partners on a massive scale? They wait until your site has just under the earnings when they have to write you a check, then they terminate your AdSense account for “polic…

This also makes me feel even more strongly that the FTC should really clamp down on these very strict app stores. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/amicus_briefs/app... Both the App Store and Google Play stores I think are basically illegal monopolies. I should be able to install whatever app I want, without having to jailbreak my phone and deal with warranty nonsense from the manufacturer. Just like my comp…

On Android, you do have the freedom to install whatever app you want without having to root. You can also install alternative app stores.
Post reply on HN