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

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

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If there's a good alternative never use Google anything. Brave instead of Chrome. Duck Duck Go instead of Google. Proton Mail instead of Gmail. The only thing I haven't been able to replace is YouTube. That's a tricky one because it's the content creators that keep me locked into it.

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.

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

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Every product/project you manage should be on a separate account on Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. I wouldn’t do this with Facebook. Creating a second account is against Facebook policy, and they may ban both accounts.

Legit question: is there any other service/company on earth that bans you for having multiple accounts? This seems like an insanely restrictive policy. One of the defining characteristics of internet communication is that you can have a “work persona” and a “home persona” and maybe another one for your hobbies, another one for your porn browsing and gambling, another one for your aunts and uncles. To deny this basic,…

Internet companies have decided to deny this right the moment they figured out that your identity is valuable. Nowadays Google and FB, among others, will punish you if you use different online identities without their knowledge.

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

#83
post #21

How on earth does google manage to still be one of the most valuable (in $$$) companies in the world with this kind of behavior. I just can't imagine treating my customers half as bad as the way google does and still continue to be in business. Abruptly dropping support for products[1], violating their user's privacy [2] , working with organizations accused of human rights violations. Each passing year it seems googl…

Are you serious with your question or is this hyperbole?

When you hear about something like this you are seeing the one in a million false positive or more likely there was some fuckery going on. Obviously there is no upside for the banned devs to admit that they tried to abuse click rate on their ads, so unless Google comes forward admitting they made a mistake we will never know whose on right here.

This still leaves millions of happy consumers using Google's products without any issue and ban of some Android IDE is hardly going to be moving any needle anywhere.

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

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Epik is excited to provide services for white supremacists. I'd think thrice if this is a vendor I'd like to have my name associated with.

Okay, but we're in a discussion about avoiding services that randomly ban people, so that sounds like a positive: If they won't even ban white supremacists, they probably won't ban me.

[deleted]

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

#85
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.

> If there's a good alternative never use Google anything. Brave instead of Chrome. Duck Duck Go instead of Google. Proton Mail instead of Gmail. The only thing I haven't been able to replace is YouTube. That's a tricky one because it's the content creators that keep me locked into it.

> The only thing I haven't been able to replace is YouTube. That's a tricky one because it's the content creators that keep me locked into it.

Yes, this is a pain. At least YouTube does not require an account and you can use it through Invidious (or NewPipe on Android, or mpv/youtube-dl on Linux if you already have the YouTube link).

> Brave instead of Chrome.

Brave is Chrome repackaged. This a bit feels like "I avoid [brand] but I'll take this white-label product (produced by [brand]")

Avoid anything Chromium.

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

#86
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.

> If there's a good alternative never use Google anything. Brave instead of Chrome. Duck Duck Go instead of Google. Proton Mail instead of Gmail. The only thing I haven't been able to replace is YouTube. That's a tricky one because it's the content creators that keep me locked into it.

Ziglang creator moved from YouTube (https://m.youtube.com/c/AndrewKelley/featured) to Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/showcase/7818787) to have more control. Encouraging creators you like to migrate could help decrease dependency on YouTube.

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

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Every product/project you manage should be on a separate account on Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. I wouldn’t do this with Facebook. Creating a second account is against Facebook policy, and they may ban both accounts.

Legit question: is there any other service/company on earth that bans you for having multiple accounts? This seems like an insanely restrictive policy. One of the defining characteristics of internet communication is that you can have a “work persona” and a “home persona” and maybe another one for your hobbies, another one for your porn browsing and gambling, another one for your aunts and uncles. To deny this basic,…

GitHub disallows multiple free accounts in the TOS, meaning identity separation seemingly implies a continuous subscription cost forever. I'm not aware of any high-profile enforcement, but it's there.

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

#88
post #59
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why so expensive? in the UK it's £13/year (under $20)

It can be much cheaper in other good states. $250 to 400 yearly rings a bell for WY, NV, DL

Only if you live in those states. If you live in and operate out of CA, but incorporate in DE, you end up paying both DE and CA franchise taxes.

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

#89
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Author here.) This is excellent advice for consumer apps/products, (it's especially important to keep enterprise accounts fully separate from your individual consumer accounts), but it wouldn't have helped DroidScript in this case. DroidScript is a non-profit organization; when they signed up for Google AdMob and Google Play Store, they provided the same tax ID (their EIN) in both cases. Creating separate Google acc…

> Creating a subsidiary business for every type of Google account you have would be quite expensive Costs roughly $1000/yr to run a properly sheltered LLC. Just saying, that’s a low barrier to overcome for any company turning modest revenue.

> Costs roughly $1000/yr to run a properly sheltered LLC. Just saying, that’s a low barrier to overcome for any company turning modest revenue.

I'm paying $200ish annually in Georgia. Am I missing some major filing requirement? This is a big discrepancy.

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

#90

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…

> - Every product/project you manage should be on a separate account on Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. I wouldn’t do this with Facebook. Creating a second account is against Facebook policy, and they may ban both accounts.

Every older person I know does this because some games require to be unlocked at different stages by a friend.
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