
Does Google continue to corrode unwanted Android developers?
On Habré there were already articles devoted to various repressions from Google in relation to developers. However, it seems that the good corporation has acquired new methods of dealing with developers who are objectionable to it.
Two months have passed since my developer account was blocked on Google Play. Having forgotten all this a bit, I managed to study various alternative stores and rewrote one of the applications (the same one, banned) under Windows Phone. And so, on September 30, a letter comes from AdMob with the following text:
All markup letters are fully preserved. I only changed the name of the application so that it would not be considered an advertisement.
The most interesting and important thing is that this is not the application that was banned for violating the rules. This is a completely different application, which was located on the same Google Play account. That is, it turns out that now you can’t participate in AdMob if your Google Play account is banned. And it is likely that I can only wait until AdMob gradually bumps all my other applications in which there was an advertisement. And I couldn’t find an item in the AdMob rules about the “deleting Google Play” described in the letter.
PS By the way, the same application is already available for 10 months on the AppStore (and now on the Windows Phone Store) without any problems.
Update Today, October 8th, AdMob received a notification about the ban of the next application.
Background
On July 24, I received a letter stating that one of my applications was deleted due to a violation of the provision for paid and free applications and clause 3.3 of the agreement. In other words, Google found that my free application uses third-party payment systems. There were no third-party payment systems in the application itself. It had:
Of course, the second point is a bad decision, and probably that is what they did not like. When I looked for information on this issue, I found answers like “in such a system no one cares what’s on your site, the main thing is that there isn’t in the application." An example was given by Evernote. I did not check the information, I trusted this reasoning and, apparently, this was my main mistake.
The letter said that I can fix the error and unload the updated application with a different package name. I immediately removed the link to the site and uploaded the corrected application. At the same time, I sent them a letter asking them to see if everything is in order and give them the opportunity to fix it if something is suddenly wrong. A few minutes later a ticket came that the letter was received for processing. After 4 hours, a message came that the new application was blocked for the same reason. And another 20 hours later a letter arrived that the entire developer account was already blocked in connection with repeated violations of the rules and the agreement. The letter also said that you should not try to register a new account, because we will calculate you anyway, ban again, but we will not refund the money for registration; please use other ways to distribute your applications.
Then there were appeals to Google and numerous letters to me from users who asked where this or that application disappeared. Some of these users subsequently wrote to the Google Play user support service asking them to return the applications, which they were refused in the spirit of “we don’t know anything, it was either the developer who uninstalled the application or he violated the rules.” Some particularly annoying users were later sent to write to the developer support service, whence they replied that this application is not yours, let the author write. My appeals were rejected with a template note, which can be briefly described as “we looked, you violated, we won’t change our decision and don’t write to us anymore.” I must say that in general all the answers are always stereotyped and one gets the feeling that appeals in principle do not read.
- Google’s in-app billing for lifetime ad cuts
- Link to a site where you can fund your account not through Google
Of course, the second point is a bad decision, and probably that is what they did not like. When I looked for information on this issue, I found answers like “in such a system no one cares what’s on your site, the main thing is that there isn’t in the application." An example was given by Evernote. I did not check the information, I trusted this reasoning and, apparently, this was my main mistake.
The letter said that I can fix the error and unload the updated application with a different package name. I immediately removed the link to the site and uploaded the corrected application. At the same time, I sent them a letter asking them to see if everything is in order and give them the opportunity to fix it if something is suddenly wrong. A few minutes later a ticket came that the letter was received for processing. After 4 hours, a message came that the new application was blocked for the same reason. And another 20 hours later a letter arrived that the entire developer account was already blocked in connection with repeated violations of the rules and the agreement. The letter also said that you should not try to register a new account, because we will calculate you anyway, ban again, but we will not refund the money for registration; please use other ways to distribute your applications.
Then there were appeals to Google and numerous letters to me from users who asked where this or that application disappeared. Some of these users subsequently wrote to the Google Play user support service asking them to return the applications, which they were refused in the spirit of “we don’t know anything, it was either the developer who uninstalled the application or he violated the rules.” Some particularly annoying users were later sent to write to the developer support service, whence they replied that this application is not yours, let the author write. My appeals were rejected with a template note, which can be briefly described as “we looked, you violated, we won’t change our decision and don’t write to us anymore.” I must say that in general all the answers are always stereotyped and one gets the feeling that appeals in principle do not read.
Two months have passed since my developer account was blocked on Google Play. Having forgotten all this a bit, I managed to study various alternative stores and rewrote one of the applications (the same one, banned) under Windows Phone. And so, on September 30, a letter comes from AdMob with the following text:
Hello!
We inform you that one of your applications does not currently comply with the rules of the AdMob program, and therefore the display of ads in it has been disabled.
Problem ID: 12345678
Application in which ads were disabled: MyApp2 (en.bartwell.myapp2)
Necessary measures: check if your other applications comply with the program rules.
Current account status: active
Explanation of policy violation
REMOVAL GOOGLE PLAY. AdMob publishers are prohibited from violating or provoking the violation of Google’s product policies, such as Google Play, YouTube and Blogger. Among other things, this means means to circumvent Google’s rules (for example, programs for downloading videos from YouTube).
If your application was uninstalled due to a violation of Google Play policies, please contact us. If your application has been restored,send an appeal toour team.
Necessary measures: check if your account complies with the program’s rules.
We have disabled the ads in the above application, but your AdMob account is still active. We recommend that you check whether your other applications comply with the program rules and regularly monitor their status. This will help prevent a recurrence of such problems. We draw your attention to the fact that we reserve the right to disconnect an account at any time if violations are discovered again.
Appeals
To appeal your account deactivation, please fill out thisform .
Thank you for your cooperation.
Sincerely,
The Google AdMob Team
All markup letters are fully preserved. I only changed the name of the application so that it would not be considered an advertisement.
The most interesting and important thing is that this is not the application that was banned for violating the rules. This is a completely different application, which was located on the same Google Play account. That is, it turns out that now you can’t participate in AdMob if your Google Play account is banned. And it is likely that I can only wait until AdMob gradually bumps all my other applications in which there was an advertisement. And I couldn’t find an item in the AdMob rules about the “deleting Google Play” described in the letter.
PS By the way, the same application is already available for 10 months on the AppStore (and now on the Windows Phone Store) without any problems.
Update Today, October 8th, AdMob received a notification about the ban of the next application.