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

My app just got removed with no prior warning

javierantonsblog.blogspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 129 posts

Re: My app just got removed with no prior warning

#81

Post by collaborative »

deelowe wrote: post #73
LadyCailin wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What horribly impractical advice. I mean, in theory, sure, but retaining a lawyer because you run a small public service? Nah.

I think the point being made is that the company shouldn't be making up legally binding agreements (the privacy policy) without consultation.

Here in the UK you can create and run a company with no lawyers and no accountants. I am originally from Spain where doing anything requires lawyers, notaries, and loads of cash. That results in a petrified business class. I was lucky to have business oriented parents that taught me concepts related to taxation, employment law etc. But I appreciate the LibDem's move years ago to cut paperwork and am happy for it

Re: My app just got removed with no prior warning

#82

Post by admax88q »

px43 wrote: post #20

Are we expected to sympathize with an app that's siphoning off sensitive user data from phones without informing the user? Seems shady. Your main website says: * Data is never kept online * No ads, no affiliate marketers, and no creepy tracking * No phone number is required; No need to share your phone book. Only need an email address (can be masked) But your privacy policy says: * For a better experience while using…

Seems like a pretty boilerplate privacy policy. When in doubt cover your own ass.

Privacy policies are just a waste of time anyways, bad actors are going to act bad regardless of any "policy" they have in place.

Not to mention the policy is not necessarily a contract.

Re: My app just got removed with no prior warning

#83

Post by deelowe »

OJFord wrote: post #77
deelowe wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point being made is that the company shouldn't be making up legally binding agreements (the privacy policy) without consultation.

And if too small/cheap to have consulted a solicitor, are you really saying none is better than 'made up'? Worst case is what, you miss something you should've included and it bites you? Something you thought covered you turned out not to be binding (because it's otherwise illegal or too narrowly defined or whatever)? Seems to me many small side projects or whatever would do well (and zero harm) to 'make up' user agr…

If you are asking for my opinion, I'd suggest not going anywhere near PII without legal consultation.

Re: My app just got removed with no prior warning

#84

Post by collaborative »

shp0ngle wrote: post #71

A bit tangential, but I cannot figure out what does the OP app actually do https://www.groupsapp.online Is it for E2EE chat? For shared diagrams? For shared calendar? It seem to do everything, including... turning B&W photos into colors? Cannot figure this out.

I often wish I could just maintain a couple dozen apps that do very specific things instead of one. I am quite certain it would also be way more profitable. People are quite ok with paying $1 for single use things, like zipping files or turning B&W pictures to color

But maintaining any app on the app store is so time consuming that I just don't have the time for it

Regarding your question, the app's main purpose is to work collaboratively on shared organigrams and family trees. It also includes an E2EE chat that I developed purely as a hobby (no chance competing against Whatsapp or Signal). That is the free bit

I monetize by offering optional features like shared calendars, document drives and cloud photo galleries. Apologies if the app's purpose isn't clear and thanks for the hint seems I might need to simplify)

Re: My app just got removed with no prior warning

#85

Post by e3bc54b2 »

Sebb767 wrote: post #27
malwarebytess wrote: post #11

> 1) Unexpectedly pulling an app with no warning and then imposing a 7-day review period is not reasonable. OK, my app only has tens of thousands of downloads. No, no. Don't apologize. Would you expect Google to remove twitter's app with no prior notice? How about a U.S. government app? Why should you expect different treatment from Google than Twitter et al.? Google has to provide a consistent and responsive experie…

> Why should you expect different treatment from Google than Twitter et al.? Twitter and the US government are well known and are very unlikely to turn rogue (i.e. cash out or sell the app to a shady advertising company). This base trust does not exist for a small, unknown developer. I can see why this is a bit unfair, but having the same treatment for well-known, trusted entities and first time submitters will lead…

Interesting, because Twitter didn't sell to shady advertisimg company, they became shady advertising company with PII gobbling and dark practices.

It is also interesting you say about givernment (although my beef isn't with USG), because my givernment has tons of shady apps that leak sensitive PII left and right, and nobody cares..

Re: My app just got removed with no prior warning

#87

Post by dyeje »

dsr_ wrote: post #42
collaborative wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not a lawyer and don't know how wide "3rd parties" can refer to. Is my cloud provider a 3rd party? If there is a lawyer here who can advise that it is safe to do I will remove it

Don't take legal advice from Internet lawyers; don't take business advice from your competitors. Hire somebody knowledgeable to review your privacy policy and terms of service.

Have you ever hired a lawyer to review a privacy policy / ToS? It costs thousands of dollars.

Re: My app just got removed with no prior warning

#88

Post by voakbasda »

Sebb767 wrote: post #27
malwarebytess wrote: post #11

> 1) Unexpectedly pulling an app with no warning and then imposing a 7-day review period is not reasonable. OK, my app only has tens of thousands of downloads. No, no. Don't apologize. Would you expect Google to remove twitter's app with no prior notice? How about a U.S. government app? Why should you expect different treatment from Google than Twitter et al.? Google has to provide a consistent and responsive experie…

> Why should you expect different treatment from Google than Twitter et al.? Twitter and the US government are well known and are very unlikely to turn rogue (i.e. cash out or sell the app to a shady advertising company). This base trust does not exist for a small, unknown developer. I can see why this is a bit unfair, but having the same treatment for well-known, trusted entities and first time submitters will lead…

You’re totally right. The government always can be trusted to surveil its populace through only legal means. And large corporations would never break the law when they think the consequences will cost less than the profits to be made.

Re: My app just got removed with no prior warning

#89

Post by p_j_w »

otrahuevada wrote: post #70

Just wantend to ask, in light of Google pulling an Apple in a couple months and preventing users from installing random APKs, is anyone working on a sideloading mechanism of some sort? I'd like my apps to remain out of their capricious, purposefully labyrinthic and failure prone stewardship for as long as possible

>Google pulling an Apple in a couple months and preventing users from installing random APKs

This is the first I've heard of this, unless you're confusing this with the idea of them requiring developers to upload Android App Bundles instead of APKs to the store. Do you have a source?

Re: My app just got removed with no prior warning

#90

Post by VLM »

px43 wrote: post #20

Are we expected to sympathize with an app that's siphoning off sensitive user data from phones without informing the user? Seems shady. Your main website says: * Data is never kept online * No ads, no affiliate marketers, and no creepy tracking * No phone number is required; No need to share your phone book. Only need an email address (can be masked) But your privacy policy says: * For a better experience while using…

OP will have to speak for themselves, but the policy looks like boilerplate I've had to include for 3rd party crash reporting services.

So if the stack trace for a null pointer somehow vaguely includes some kind of PII as a side effect of reporting the crash, the privacy policy needs to cover their behind.

Post reply on HN