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Log in or sign up in seconds.| * English [ ][] [ ]limit my search to r/androiddev use the following search parameters to narrow your results: subreddit:subreddit find submissions in "subreddit" author:username find submissions by "username" site:example.com find submissions from "example.com" url:text search for "text" in url selftext:text search for "text" in self post contents self:yes (or self:no) include (or exclude) self posts nsfw:yes (or nsfw:no) include (or exclude) results marked as NSFW e.g. subreddit:aww site:imgur.com dog see the search faq for details. advanced search: by author, subreddit... this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2022 198 points (98% upvoted) shortlink: [https://redd.it/ts6j] [ ][ ] [ ]remember mereset password login Submit a new link Submit a new text post Get an ad-free experience with special benefits, and directly support Reddit. get reddit premium androiddev joinleave194,336 readers 149 users here now About News for Android developers with the who, what, where, when, and how of the Android community. 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Learn More discussions in r/androiddev <> X 198 * 153 comments [6kw0bmao] Google has terminated our Developer Account, says it is "associated"? * 2 comments [7HsLPOtI] Sentry can now automatically install all Android SDKs through gradle (feedback request) * 1 comment youtube vanced down * 1 comment GPS location tampering 2 * 3 comments How to "anchor" seekbar to a certain values? 1 * 3 comments Best certifications for a new Android dev? 1 * 4 comments Is it worth working on an app that gets 400 installs/month through the Playstore? 5 Questions to ask a fresher in interview 0 * 9 comments Comparing Two numbers Triggers Toast Too Early 2 * 2 comments Unable to Release my Games on the PlayStore as I'm unable to verify my identity on the console! While my Country was listed in the registration form (Iran), it is not listed in the list of accepted IDs & Passports, which is infuriating! This is absurd! Welcome to Reddit, the front page of the internet. Become a Redditor and join one of thousands of communities. x 197 198 199 [6kw0bmao] Google has terminated our Developer Account, says it is "associated"? (self.androiddev) submitted 9 hours ago by nadalizadeh[silver_48]2 We are facing a difficult situation and I hope the community is able to help us. After 10 years of working with Google Play and getting more than 1 million downloads in total, we have received an email that our company's Play Developer accounts are terminated permanently and all of the games and apps have been removed. I can not still believe that we are being destroyed in an instant without any prior notice: Company Account Termination Email Personal Account Termination Email Our company used to have several employees with access to the business's Play Console, and one of them recently had done something wrong with "his own personal" Google Play Developer account. Now company's account has been terminated, because it is assumed to be associated with the former employee who has left the company in March 2019 (3 years ago). We've found a few other individuals who've posted online with very similar issues and were able to get their accounts back in good standing after getting in touch with the right people at the Play policy team, but after the last few weeks, we've been hard-pressed to get in touch with anyone. We have also used the formal appeal process but received the same automated/repeated response. After thoroughly reviewing Google's Developer Policies, we are sure that all apps are compliant with them and the only problem is currently this wrong, unfair, and unreal association. Appeal response We are living in a climate of fear. Without doing anything wrong, or crossing any redline, not only all apps and the account has been removed, but also we are threatened not to open a new account as Google will close it immediately. My Request: Does anyone have an experience with this situation or could possibly connect us with the right person in this case? ------------------------- Events Timeline: Apr 2014 - H. (Former employee) Started working in our company Mar 2019 - H. Left the company, all permissions removed except on one game which we were still using H.'s consultation on - The app was unpublished later on 04 Dec 2021 - Termination of H. (Former Employee) account because of multiple policy violations 26 Jan 2022 - Termination of our company account (Raya Games Ltd - AKA TOD Studio) without prior notices and warnings 26 Jan 2022 - Appeal submitted 4 Feb 2022 - Termination of my personal account (Ali Nadalizadeh) 10 Mar 2022 - Termination of second company account (for Raya Game Publishing Ltd) 13 Mar 2022 - Rejection response for the appeal submitted on 26 Jan (46 days of silence) This is how google's automated association is terminating accounts: H. => (?) => Raya Games Ltd (TOD Studio) => Me While we are no longer associated in any formal or legal or contractual form. ------------------------- App Archive Links: Fruitcraft - Trading Card Game https://web.archive.org/web/20211013081747/https://play.google.com/ store/apps/details?id=com.tod.fruitcraft Percity - City Building Simulation Game https://web.archive.org/web/20210617023937/https://play.google.com/ store/apps/details?id=com.tod.xameen NewCity - City building simulation game (no archive.org URL was found) https://apksfull.com/newcity-city-buildingfarming/ com.citybuilding.newcity Plus 10 other low traffic games and apps that are not mentioned here. * 153 comments * share * save * hide * report all 153 comments sorted by: best topnewcontroversialoldrandomq&alive (beta) [ ] Want to add to the discussion? Post a comment! Create an account [-]xanaxagoras 47 points48 points49 points 8 hours ago (2 children) I see from your screenshots you're using gmail. Now would be a good time to secure an archive of all of your old mail. If you're on your own domain, now would also be a good time to move it to another provider. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]nadalizadeh[S] 21 points22 points23 points 8 hours ago (1 child) Exactly, I have the 100GB option and there are lots of emails. I can see that anytime my Google account might be banned or something. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]_cs 17 points18 points19 points 7 hours ago (0 children) Yeah, activate a "Google Takeout" immediately because it can take a few days for them to compile your data. Then download it all so that at least you have it all should you ever want to reference an old email, google photo, map review, search history, whatever. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]ocdtrekkie 84 points85 points86 points 8 hours ago (11 children) Good luck. Unfortunately any business that depends on Google for its survival is gambling every day that it won't exist the next. Google is a bad business partner. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]nadalizadeh[S] 11 points12 points13 points 8 hours ago (10 children) Are there any alternatives for App/Game developers? Other distribution channels and alternative stores are so tiny and negligible. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]fixermark 30 points31 points32 points 8 hours ago (0 children) No, there aren't. There's a reason Google gets away with being such a bad business partner. Porting to iOS is probably the next most revenue-rich option. Beyond that, there are other app stores for the Android platform (such as Amazon's), but they're much smaller, as you've noted. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]towcar 17 points18 points19 points 7 hours ago (1 child) It's a bit much, but I found a post last week on distributing apps to the Chinese market. Anyway here is the stores they said you need to support to cover 90% of China. 1. Huawei App Gallery 2. Tencent MyApp 3. Oppo Software Store 4. Vivo App Store 5. Xiaomi App Store 6. 360 Mobile Assistant 7. Baidu Mobile Assistant 8. Samsung App Store 9. PP Assistant 10. Wandoujia Not sure what market share this all supports outside of China, which is the more important part. Samsung is default on Samsung devices, but not very popular for example. I also don't know if these all support games as well and what hoops are required * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]nadalizadeh[S] 8 points9 points10 points 7 hours ago (0 children) I have an app published in samsung galaxy store, they don't publish in china by default because you need certifications, but the revenue we took from outside of China on Galaxy store is like 1 to 100 compared to Google Play store. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]redditthrowaway20191 3 points4 points5 points 8 hours ago (0 children) You mean besides Apple and Steam? * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]amphibian_level 1 point2 points3 points 7 hours ago (0 children) You could try Aptoide * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]archlinuxxx69 0 points1 point2 points 6 hours ago (2 children) Distribute .apk's in your website or use FDroid. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]iain_1986 2 points3 points4 points 3 hours ago (0 children) And say bye bye to meaningful revenue * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]Meloetta 1 point2 points3 points 2 hours ago (0 children) I think lots of users, me included, would never install an apk from a website sight unseen. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]Aug_2022_Stadia_EOL 0 points1 point2 points 4 hours ago (0 children) The web. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]miraunpajaro 0 points1 point2 points 2 hours ago (0 children) Of course there are. You can use f-droid, assuming you don't mind open-sourcing your app... * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]KabukiOrigin 50 points51 points52 points 8 hours ago (17 children) Work through your company lawyer / attorney / counselor. The point would not be to sue them into oblivion (you won't win) but to engage in discussion at a contractual level. They claim you violated the mutual contract. You feel differently. This is a contract dispute, not an account dispute. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]Hizonner 28 points29 points30 points 8 hours ago (9 children) The contract basically says they can fuck you any time they want for any reason they want, or for no reason, and you have no recourse against them whatsoever. The answer at the "contractual level" would be "We felt like terminating you. Good day.". That contract should, of course, be invalid as a matter of law, but good luck with that in today's legal climate. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]icankillpenguins 25 points26 points27 points 7 hours ago (4 children) Just because something is in the contract doesn't mean that they can do it(no, you can't take someones kidneys just because you put it in the EULA). Besides, they claim that the account is closed due to violation and if there's no violation it is essentially unjust account closure. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]_cs 5 points6 points7 points 7 hours ago (3 children) Yeah but there's a law against taking someone's kidneys. There's no law against a company terminating an account on shaky grounds (as long as it's not due to a protected class like sex, race, etc.) * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]icankillpenguins 7 points8 points9 points 7 hours ago* (2 children) There are laws against harmful activities against businesses and people. Not everything is based on specific rules and there's a lot room for interpretations, that's why it takes a judge and large number of lawyers to decide who is on the right and who pays what. Otherwise, we would have "in case of dispute I'm right and you are wrong. Not like it? Don't use our service" kind of contracts. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply continue this thread [-]ic33 9 points10 points11 points 7 hours ago (0 children) The thing is, contact through legal channels at least guarantees that a human will read your letter. You can't strongarm them, but you can at least be heard. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]Meloetta 2 points3 points4 points 5 hours ago (0 children) Even if they don't have legal recourse, if they're not responding to regular channels, what can it hurt to force their hand in a way that a real person might actually review the case? I mean, they're already locked out forever. It's not like trying another route will hurt them. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]CoopNine -4 points-3 points-2 points 1 hour ago (0 children) The problem is, they associated with a bad actor, and allowed that bad actor direct access to their applications and google can see this. Google is doing what they should do to protect the millions of users they have, and if a few developers get hit, it is certainly better than users getting abused. If you own a company, NEVER, under any circumstances, EVER allow a developer to connect a personal account to yours. Never allow them to use an account after they are terminated. If you bring them on as a contractor afterwards create separate accounts to protect yourself as a company. Google has a responsibility that is greater to its users than it is to its developers. And if a developer has bad practices that allows themselves to fall into this, too bad. I understand that the OP here didn't mean to get into that situation, but... comeon, don't ever... EVER allow a developers personal account to be associated with yours. Do you really expect google to say, yeah that was the bad guy, you guys are OK? It's an easy avenue for abuse. Google does not and should not put the average developer above their end-user. If you get yourself in this situation as a developer, you've done it all to yourself, and it is on you to figure out if you can fix it. Google has a responsibility to users who trust them, not to you just because you paid a paltry $25 fee. I don't feel bad for any of these 'companies' who are banned by association, because the only way that happens is via their own stupidity or lack of care or control. Protect your reputation. It is not hard. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]jelled 6 points7 points8 points 6 hours ago (0 children) Exactly this. Talk to a lawyer about pursuing a breach of contract claim against Google. I was able to get my Adsense account reinstated after sending Google a letter outlining how they had breached our contractual agreement. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]bt4u8 5 points6 points7 points 7 hours ago (2 children) Good luck fighting the army of lawyers Google has. Right or wrong... They will bury you in legalese to the point where they can afford the legal fees and you cannot. Then they win. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]ExtremeHeat 0 points1 point2 points 5 hours ago (1 child) The amount of or how good your lawyers are have no impact on the merits of a case. Demand a jury trial, sue for damages and legal expenses, utilize discovery process for your advantage and have Google make their case to a jury. Most of the time, cases like this don't make it to a jury--simply because the company being sued decides on a settlement to take the easy way out. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]bt4u8 0 points1 point2 points 5 hours ago (0 children) Definitely does not affect the merits of a case. It's just that their immense resources give them advantages that pretty much nobody, even otherwise "big" companies, can compete with * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]KingSadra 5 points6 points7 points 7 hours ago (2 children) Google is a true piece of sh!t in my mind as an Iranian! They have my country on their registration form for a developer account, but neither our IDs nor our Passports are not accepted and I am now stuck in a loop! This is ridiculously absurd of a mistake for a company as big as google! * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]hardolaf 1 point2 points3 points 3 hours ago (1 child) It's not a mistake. They can't do business with you legally. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]KingSadra 1 point2 points3 points 3 hours ago (0 children) Maybe they should consider removing our country from the registration form as well then? * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]hillman_avenger 25 points26 points27 points 8 hours ago (7 children) It's whole new level of Kafkaesque when your personal account can be terminated months later without otice purely by being associated with an account that is assoicated with an account that is associated with an account that was used for a policy violation. It's a shame Google can't afford to employee humans to review these decisions. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]lechatsportif 26 points27 points28 points 8 hours ago (4 children) They can afford it. No one makes them do it. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]ocdtrekkie 10 points11 points12 points 7 hours ago (3 children) This. We could solve a heck of a lot, and bring the skyrocketing tech stocks back down to the realm of reason simply by requiring they do what every other business already does: Employ customer support that can be contacted about service issues. And if they "can't afford it", then their business isn't viable, and shouldn't continue to exist. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]The_Masturbatrix 3 points4 points5 points 7 hours ago (0 children) They can afford it. They choose not to. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]Niku-Man 4 points5 points6 points 5 hours ago (1 child) They have created a walled garden and control access to it. Support shouldn't even matter in this instance because Google is a middleman and their part in the equation of downloading apps shouldn't even exist. They don't even do a good job keeping out scam applications. Desktop applications do just fine without some "app store" telling us what's ok to download. I can visit any site I want in my browser without the intervention of an app store. Now why do I need Google between me and the apps I download for my phone? * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]CleaveItToBeaver 0 points1 point2 points 4 hours ago (0 children) Desktop applications do just fine without some "app store" telling us what's ok to download. I can visit any site I want in my browser without the intervention of an app store. Now why do I need Google between me and the apps I download for my phone? That's the thing; you don't. You can download and install an apk just fine. But the visibility isn't there, because Google Play is the default option, and anything else is presented as untrusted, and thus, potentially dangerous. Most of the user base is going to take them at their word. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]kobebeefpussy 1 point2 points3 points 4 hours ago (0 children) google is a very small indie company please understand they can't afford some fact checkers * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]Polyxeno 0 points1 point2 points 6 hours ago (0 children) Yes. I had my Apple Developer account mysteriously unable to build my own apps, because an old client of mine didnt renew THEIR Apple Developer account. I had to remove my account's association with their business account, before I could work on my own apps. And I had to learn thst was what I needed to fo basically by trial and error. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]towcar 12 points13 points14 points 8 hours ago (6 children) 04 Dec 2021 - Termination of H. (Former Employee) account because of multiple policy violations How did you find this out? Otherwise this genuinely sounds rough. Nate from Google sounded pretty confident, but a past employee should have no weight. This is quite odd. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]nadalizadeh[S] 22 points23 points24 points 8 hours ago* (3 children) We were expecting to be presented with a policy that was violated but all they said was that we are associated with another terminated developer account. At this point, we searched and found the old employee whose account had been terminated. Other than that, Google doesn't expose any details in their emails * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]towcar 2 points3 points4 points 8 hours ago (2 children) That makes sense. I could be wrong but 46 days seems way too long without a response, unless terminated accounts get low priority. I would have tried to recontact after a week. As well I would start a new appeal again. Hopefully you get some useful replies here. I'm already noticing a lot of unhelpful comments. Perhaps this will be upvoted enough for a Google employee to notice it. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]nadalizadeh[S] 14 points15 points16 points 8 hours ago (1 child) Basically you can not appeal again, because it says you already have one in progress. And regarding the followup, yes we did. All they said was this: On Fri, Feb 4, 2022 at 8:25 AM googleplay-developer-support@google.com wrote: Hi Ali, Thanks for contacting Google Play Developer Support. I understand that you have concerns regarding the removal of your developer account. As much as our team would like to help, we are unable to provide support or suggestions on how to fix the violations. If you have policy-related concerns, please kindly reach out to the Policy support team for further assistance: If you have an existing appeal, you can continue to communicate with the Policy Support team via the existing case. Please note that the Google Play Console may not display the status of your reopened appeal cases. If you have not filed an appeal and have questions about an enforcement action taken against your app for violating Google Play's Developer Distribution Agreement or Developer Program Policies, please note you can file an appeal by following the instructions included in the email notifying you of the violation. The Policy Support team will contact you via email to assist you further once you've filed an appeal. You can also find more information about managing policy violations and enforcement in the Developer policy Center. Please note that contacting the Policy Support team via the method listed above is the best and the only solution for issues concerning policies. Thank you for your understanding and cooperations. Regards, Josephine Google Play Developer Support * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]towcar 10 points11 points12 points 8 hours ago (0 children) That's definitely tough. I'll give you a silver and hope this post gains some attention at least. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]JiveTrain 2 points3 points4 points 6 hours ago (1 child) Nate is not a human. This is an automated template response. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]towcar 5 points6 points7 points 6 hours ago (0 children) I partially disagree. In my experience, completely automated responses from Google don't use a human name (I just checked my previous emails). However Nate is a human who did manually look at this case and sent the templated response. I agree that Nate definitely did not type a single word ha ha * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]NtrtnmntPrpssNly 12 points13 points14 points 8 hours ago (0 children) Might want to have an attorney reach out to the Google Playstore legal department? * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]IamNotMike25 11 points12 points13 points 7 hours ago (0 children) A lot of Google employees are active on Twitter - try to get their attention there by tagging them. Cases like this get mainly solved by getting media attention.. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]ep1939 22 points23 points24 points 8 hours ago (10 children) Your business is basically over. Good luck even getting someone who's not a bot to actually answer. And even if you'll get someone you'll get a no explanation confirmation that you're getting terminated. Their shop, their rules sadly. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]towcar 7 points8 points9 points 8 hours ago (9 children) Glass completely empty kind of person eh? * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]tty5 11 points12 points13 points 8 hours ago (0 children) More like the glass is half empty. What's in it is rat poison. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]TheQueefGoblin 15 points16 points17 points 8 hours ago (0 children) More like "Google has repeatedly proven themselves to not give even the smallest fuck about their customers" kind of person. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]lordkoba 2 points3 points4 points 6 hours ago (5 children) I'd bet there are probably more miracles officially recognized by the catholic church than accounts restored by google after an appeal has been rejected. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]towcar -1 points0 points1 point 6 hours ago (4 children) Most of these termination posts on this sub are from scum developers making sketchy apps. This post definitely appears like a genuine mistake by Google. However aside from this one I rarely see Google making ban mistakes. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]thockinator 1 point2 points3 points 4 hours ago (1 child) Such mistakes happen on a very regular basis. Google even banned game devs while they were working on a Stadia port of their game, it took them weeks and social media pressure to get unbanned. Sure, compared to the huge userbase it only happens to very few users but those have no recourse unless they happen to run a Twitter profile with a million followers. Same with Facebook and others. This is an industry-wide problem. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply continue this thread [-]Aguyhere180 0 points1 point2 points 4 hours ago (1 child) Most of these termination posts on this sub are from scum developers making sketchy apps How did you come to a conclusion that "MOST" of those are bad? What sources you used to come to this conclusion? "However aside from this one I rarely see Google making ban mistakes." Then how is that giant social media app (you know the name and lawsuits it faced) still in their app store? What kind of mistake is that? Yes there are bad players but innocent people who make honest mistakes(or not at all) must not be a treated unfairly. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply continue this thread [-]ep1939 0 points1 point2 points 6 hours ago (0 children) I am just sad for all the people pouring their time and souls just to be terminated by those services. Very sad. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]centenary 19 points20 points21 points 8 hours ago (1 child) Sadly, it seems like the most effective method for getting this addressed is to start a social media campaign and hope that an actual live human at Google notices. This would require incredible luck though. Good luck =/ * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]Niku-Man 8 points9 points10 points 5 hours ago (0 children) There needs to be legislation around digital account access. Email accounts are more and more treated like digital file cabinets, so it's important for all kinds of legal and financial reasons that people can access them at any time. Google and anyone else should not be allowed to just turn off your account without warning and without clear explanation of what went wrong, and they should NEVER prohibit you from downloading your own data, such as emails, files, photos, etc that may be stored on their services without a lengthy warning period (90 days +) allowing you to download your data in time to move it elsewhere * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]ieatcarrots 17 points18 points19 points 8 hours ago (0 children) Google does this shit for 6+ years now. It's literally unbelievable. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]natch 22 points23 points24 points 8 hours ago (10 children) Develop for iOS. Apple has humans who answer phones and create support tickets and escalate issues and follow up and respond. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]lechatsportif 17 points18 points19 points 8 hours ago (2 children) Android development is basically dead. It's like building on quicksand and not worth the risk to your personal life since most likely it's highly dependent on g-services. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [+][deleted] 5 hours ago (1 child) [deleted] [-]Meloetta 0 points1 point2 points 2 hours ago (0 children) It has nothing to do with the technology used, I think you're missing the context of the entire post. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]Daiymas 1 point2 points3 points 2 hours ago (0 children) This is the only real answer. Google is a shit company that you don't want to depend on, and you can make way more money on iOS anyway. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]phearlez -3 points-2 points-1 points 8 hours ago (5 children) Bogdan Popescu would like to have a word with you about his application, Dash. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]Reason077 4 points5 points6 points 7 hours ago (0 children) What of it? Dash was reinstated to the App Store in 2017 after being removed due to accusations of fake reviews. To me, this suggests that Apple does have humans who listen to appeals and they gave the guy a second chance. The developer eventually abandoned the iOS app in 2020 to focus on the macOS version of Dash. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]GlitteringStatus1 0 points1 point2 points 7 hours ago (3 children) He claims to not have been involved in review fraud. Apple claims he was, in fact, involved in review fraud. I don't see any particular reason to take his word for it. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]phearlez 0 points1 point2 points 7 hours ago (2 children) It is a near identical story of Apple dropping a bag of hammers on one dev and their app based on another individuals actions and a tenuous relationship between them. Or you could find any of a million other stories of similar slapdash harmful actions on their part. They are no better than Google with regards to capricious rule enforcement and poor communication. I'm fond of Apple products but there's no need to lick that boot; it will never love you back. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]GlitteringStatus1 4 points5 points6 points 7 hours ago (0 children) Except Apple reached out to him first to resolve the situation, but could not. The entire point of THIS story is that Google did not do that. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]Aguyhere180 0 points1 point2 points 4 hours ago (0 children) there's no need to lick that boot; it will never love you back this * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]Tolriq 7 points8 points9 points 7 hours ago (1 child) Something I fear everyday. I made the mistake to accept to be given access to a client account a very long time ago. And even if I asked Google to remove me and everything. I'm pretty sure if he ever get banned I'll be too, even if it was many many years ago. This just should not be possible. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]rndrnd10341 0 points1 point2 points 3 hours ago (0 children) If you are working for someone, ask them to setup a xxx@ddd.com account for you with them (employee account). Do you work for them under your employee account. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]01egme 7 points8 points9 points 7 hours ago* (1 child) I have a similar issue last year. Google allows only 1 appeal, but it's processed by machine (the answer same for everyone). I email google support for 4 months and still no result. My account is still in a "terminated" state and keeps getting the same emails. Big companies like Google, just don't care about random developers, using their monopoly state. You can use this link to appeal again: https://support.google.com/ googleplay/android-developer/contact/emailappeals?ts=AS Some people posted stories and after getting some attention when writing articles, real people from Google responded and helped them to reactive accounts. If you find a way to reactivate your account, please share your story. I would love to read it. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]nadalizadeh[S] 1 point2 points3 points 7 hours ago (0 children) Thanks for sharing * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]IdeaRoots 6 points7 points8 points 8 hours ago (2 children) curious, was his personal account added to "Associated developer accounts" or just under "Users and permissions" in the Google Play Console? * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]nadalizadeh[S] 7 points8 points9 points 8 hours ago (1 child) No, it was not in the associated developer accounts that is mainly used for the 15% service fee. But it had permissions in the company account. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]rndrnd10341 2 points3 points4 points 3 hours ago (0 children) This is the issue for sure. You don't need to wonder why the banned you. You had a developer active in your account who probably has a whole punch of policy violations. If you claim to have had no relationship with them for 3 years, how in the world were they still linked to your account? * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]polaarbear 10 points11 points12 points 7 hours ago (4 children) This is why you shouldn't EVER be mixing business and personal accounts, period. Get every dev on your staff a work account and don't let them use their personal accounts for ANYTHING related to the business. I think this goes well outside the bounds of just development. You wouldn't let your staff member link his personal checking to your business account, why would you do it for any other type of credentials? * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]Cube00 5 points6 points7 points 5 hours ago (2 children) Google because will still "associate" your accounts at any opportunity. For example, if your staff sign in to both accounts their phones to access the business account's 2FA you're toast. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]polaarbear 2 points3 points4 points 5 hours ago (1 child) Don't get me wrong, I understand how over-aggressive they seem to be sometimes, ultimately I'm on his side that if he did nothing wrong he deserves to speak to a human and get it resolved. We've just seen it here way too many times, it's not worth any risk. Get all of your employees a crappy Android tablet and let them set it at their desk for 2FA requests, they work on WiFi. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]jess-sch 1 point2 points3 points 4 hours ago (0 children) Get all of your employees a crappy Android tablet and let them set it at their desk for 2FA requests Or just hand out $25 fido keys. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]nadalizadeh[S] 2 points3 points4 points 7 hours ago (0 children) Good advice! But too late for me * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]Mo3 11 points12 points13 points 8 hours ago (13 children) Alright, that's it, I'm de-googling everything. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]useful_idiot 5 points6 points7 points 7 hours ago (4 children) Posts like this are exactly why I have invested into a self-hosted setup. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]Mo3 2 points3 points4 points 7 hours ago (2 children) Generally agree, but - I have run my own email server for almost 10 years, but not any more. It is too much annoyance and work, and good luck getting it to run well and your emails delivered and not marked as spam. Your own domain, your own MX records, use service X, if something happens, switch. It's super easy and recommendable. Otherwise, Nextcloud with OCR (to search within documents) completely replaces Google Drive. Google Search has gone to shit anyway and returns bad results 99% of time. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]useful_idiot 0 points1 point2 points 3 hours ago (1 child) Interesting! I might just be lucky in regards to email. I have run my own server for past 5 years and not had any deliverability / missed mail (I am using PostMark for outbound mail). Mailcow has given me 0 issues and is super easy to snapshot/backup/restore. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]Mo3 0 points1 point2 points 3 hours ago (0 children) I don't really see the benefit to using your own email server if you're going to send your emails over a 3rd party anyway. But yes, that sounds reasonable. Most issues do arise with outbound email. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]Aguyhere180 0 points1 point2 points 4 hours ago (0 children) cool. This must be a trend * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]MrMelon54 4 points5 points6 points 8 hours ago (7 children) I'm waiting until android-less pure linux phones are a thing lol * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]abliefern 3 points4 points5 points 7 hours ago (2 children) Why not Google-less Android? * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]MrMelon54 0 points1 point2 points 6 hours ago (0 children) cuz android prevents you doing some stuff that works on normal linux lol * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]perfect5-7-with-rice 0 points1 point2 points 6 hours ago (0 children) This. You can even install an android emulator on your phone (Linux or android) if you want to containerize your Google services * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]ciauii 2 points3 points4 points 8 hours ago (3 children) They are. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]MrMelon54 1 point2 points3 points 8 hours ago (2 children) where can I buy one? lol * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]ocdtrekkie 2 points3 points4 points 7 hours ago (1 child) https://pine64.com/product-category/smartphones/ * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply continue this thread [-]colemab 7 points8 points9 points 8 hours ago (0 children) Developing on app store monopolies = digital share cropping. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]loziomario 4 points5 points6 points 5 hours ago* (0 children) They do what they want because you have accepted this kind of contract. (you = developers) ; I could never accept a company that tells to me : we will do what we want when we want. I would say good day before even to start the collaboration. I call this arrogance. They are not giving you either the proofs they have gathered : they can be everything. This kind of behavior is not a democratic and fair approach,at all. This should be a warning for every developer. Because today this is happening to me,tomorrow to you. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]TechpassMaster 5 points6 points7 points 8 hours ago (0 children) The same thing happened to me in 2020, google was terminated my play store account * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]sschueller 2 points3 points4 points 8 hours ago (6 children) Are you in the EU or US? * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]nadalizadeh[S] 5 points6 points7 points 8 hours ago (5 children) UK, I have also read the EU laws for AppStores to notify developers before any ban, but the terms and conditions of companies seems to override that. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]pimterry 15 points16 points17 points 8 hours ago (1 child) In the EU and the UK, you have various personal rights protected under GDPR (even post brexit, at least until they change it). GDPR article 22 specifically guarantees protection against automated decisions like this: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/ guide-to-data-protection/ guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/ individual-rights/ rights-related-to-automated-decision-making-including-profiling/ Anybody facing an automated decision with a significant personal impact has "the right to obtain human intervention on the part of the controller, to express his or her point of view and to contest the decision". I'm not sure if that would apply to a business in some way, but it certainly applies to your personal account, and it's worth a shot. I would try to find Google's GDPR request email address, and send a message there to see if that trickles through to some legal team to at least kick off a manual review. If they don't, send a message to the UK ICO and see if they'll help. It's also definitely time to start a conversation with a serious lawyer about this, there's probably some legal levers they can pull to at least get you some contact with a human being. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]janoc 2 points3 points4 points 7 hours ago (0 children) That does not apply to companies, only individuals. And personal account that is used for business is governed by the contract law there. GDPR is not going to be of much help here. The advice of hiring an attorney and getting them talk to Google's legal is good, though. Even company size of Google will listen and not just put it off by some bot when a legal nastygram arrives. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]icankillpenguins 2 points3 points4 points 7 hours ago (2 children) Contracts can't override laws. Can you imagine yourself employing illegal people for less than the minimum wage just because you put it in the contract? * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]gmueckl 0 points1 point2 points 7 hours ago (1 child) That depends very much on the specific law. There are laws that explicitly allow contracts to override default provisions in the text of the law. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]icankillpenguins 1 point2 points3 points 7 hours ago (0 children) Sure, if it's specifically allowed by the law that's the law. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]cptskippy 2 points3 points4 points 7 hours ago (0 children) Both Apple and Google make it difficult, costly, and/or impossible to fully develop, test, and deploy an App without associating personal accounts with a business. And with Google, even if you went to the extent of locking down access to your Developer Console and Cloud Accounts to just accounts using your domain email address, there's no way to manage or disable personal Accounts created using your domain emails without signing up for Workspaces. Even then I'm not entirely sure you can do so without adopting Workspaces as your services provider. Apple at least offers their ABM tool. I have a feeling that even if you could do that, Google goes to such great lengths to associate your separate Google Accounts that there could still be instances where it's not enough. When you're logged in with multiple Google Accounts, their Developer and Cloud console also like to default to the personal account. So if for example you click on a Cloud Project link from a co-worker received in a Slack Chat, it opens a browser window and the Cloud console defaults to your personal account and tells you that you lack permissions. You have to know to go to the top right corner and change your account to your work account. It's easier in the long run to just grant your personal account access. This guilty by association situation is also problematic in vendor relationships as it's common practice for departments in corporations to engage with vendors to manage and deploy applications. Presently we have 3 such vendors with access to our Console. What happens if another client of one of those Vendors engages in nefarious activities? Could we get banned? Could another of our vendors get banned? * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]Hizonner 3 points4 points5 points 8 hours ago (0 children) Must be a Wednesday. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]m0mrider 1 point2 points3 points 7 hours ago (0 children) OP now is not the time to joke I know. But any chance you're laying off all Android devs and want to hire web devs, I'd like to shill my resume. All jokes aside, from looking at all related posts, not many got resolved. The future looks bleak. My best bet would be to go on Twitter, post publicly, get some traction and get talking with internal employees and asking them to help. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]bobbie424242 1 point2 points3 points 6 hours ago (0 children) A developer horror story and a proof that transitivity does not solely apply to Android libraries... * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]gthing 1 point2 points3 points 6 hours ago (2 children) This is my nightmare. Google giveth. Google taketh away. There really should be a law that lets you keep access to your Google account even if services stop working. Without my Google account I would lose access to almost my entire online digital life. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]Cube00 0 points1 point2 points 5 hours ago (1 child) Today's the day you can do something about it, fire up Google Takeout and start moving off to other services or self host. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]gthing 0 points1 point2 points 4 hours ago (0 children) Ugh you're right but I have tried several times to use Google takeout and it's sooo tedious and unreliable. You have to sit there and monitor hundreds of gigantic downloads start to finish one after the next. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]freakynit 1 point2 points3 points 6 hours ago (1 child) Spread this over internet. Talk to news sites covering google play related news and ask them if they can mention this. Also, initiate a legal case against them. These companies should understand that they can't just get away by screwing someone over and not even give a rational explanation of doing so. Go berserk on them. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]rndrnd10341 0 points1 point2 points 3 hours ago (0 children) What are the legal claims here? Developer accounts only cost $25. They have you agree that they can take away your access at any time. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]Null_Execption 1 point2 points3 points 6 hours ago (0 children) Its really hard to contact real human's in Google especially after covid times try to contact some of their support team via LinkedIn * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]I_blame_twitter 2 points3 points4 points 7 hours ago (1 child) Don't build in other's walled gardens. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]Aguyhere180 0 points1 point2 points 4 hours ago (0 children) Truth in one sentence. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]comiccollector 2 points3 points4 points 7 hours ago (0 children) Google founders saying "don't be evil." laughable assholes. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]archlinuxxx69 0 points1 point2 points 6 hours ago (0 children) This is sad and devastating. But also unsurprising. Google is known to be arbitrary and heavy handed. They don't hesitate a second before hurting small businesses. Don't tie the future of your business to one company, especially one like Google that is known to behave unethically. Always distribute .apk's via your internet website and put your app to alternative appstores such as F-Droid. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]maredsous10 -1 points0 points1 point 6 hours ago (0 children) Would not surprise me if posting this becomes a reason to ban on /r/ androiddev . "Your cousin six time removed smoke cigarettes --- insurance coverage denied." * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]geckosan -2 points-1 points0 points 7 hours ago (2 children) Can you put the games up under a new account? * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]nadalizadeh[S] 5 points6 points7 points 7 hours ago (1 child) No, AppStores automatically detect duplicate or similar apps. So this is technically impossible, they will ban the new account too. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]Apprehensive_Bag_481 1 point2 points3 points 6 hours ago (0 children) Never reuse / share app signing keys * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]Aug_2022_Stadia_EOL -3 points-2 points-1 points 4 hours ago (0 children) You played in someone else's sandbox. Now they've decided they don't want you there anymore. Too bad, you should have built your own sandbox. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]NotKriss -3 points-2 points-1 points 7 hours ago (3 children) Buy google one and get a human to chat with * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]nadalizadeh[S] 3 points4 points5 points 7 hours ago (2 children) I already have google one (the 100gb plan), but I suppose that human is not in charge of developer accounts and policy violations. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]NotKriss 0 points1 point2 points 5 hours ago (0 children) i couldve expected that, google one support has only once helped me solve a problem with my accounr * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]ustaaz 0 points1 point2 points 1 hour ago (0 children) I read (here or elsewhere, dont remember exactly) but someone in your situation kept contacting the Google one team for help in this. 2 - 3 days apart at different timings. Most of the time they would get the same response, but sometimes they would connect with a genuinely kind person who would sympathise and said they would look into it. No harm in trying this. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [+]sapato8183 comment score below threshold-6 points-5 points-4 points 8 hours ago (5 children) Why not just immediately re-creating those app pages in a new account ? Not sure if the apps was removed to existing users but they obsly will search for it if they are still using it - Slowly recovering your user base * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]nadalizadeh[S] 5 points6 points7 points 8 hours ago (3 children) I have read about that, it seems that AppStores automatically detect duplicate or similar apps. So this is technically impossible, they will ban the new account too. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]sapato8183 -3 points-2 points-1 points 8 hours ago (2 children) It's weird, I mean I get the fact that they want to prevent spam and "bypassing" bans. But, sounds like you have bad history and relationships in the accounts (in another just weird way that google decided to pick that up) But as you described, you were researching the polices, so the fact that your apps are "clean" there is no real reason that automated thing should also take them off. You still think is somehow global ban on your app "identity" ? * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]nadalizadeh[S] 4 points5 points6 points 8 hours ago (1 child) Based on their response, it is not my "identity". They think my company is "H." who has violations and my personal developer account is related to my company. So they have terminated them all without specifying a policy term that has been crossed. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]kovachxx 0 points1 point2 points 7 hours ago (0 children) Don't even try it. Your source code for the apps now is blacklisted and the moment you upload a similar source code you gonna get banned doesn't matter if you change the code around or assets. You need a completely different source code. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]zunjae 0 points1 point2 points 7 hours ago (0 children) 1h account and already trolling people on Reddit * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [+]Apprehensive-Mind212 comment score below threshold-7 points-6 points-5 points 6 hours ago (1 child) I dont know why you have such strong hetred for google, but as a small developer, i hade some problem and i could coplain and shout. And in the end i get what was right. Google protect thair users very much and that is a good thing. Sorry to say that but in the screenshot that did not explain the take down of your account and also we cant make sure that you are in the right track. But as the people explain try to reason with them becouse if you dont then you will never win. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]towcar 3 points4 points5 points 6 hours ago (0 children) It very clearly states they were terminated due to an associated account. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]lostcanuck007 0 points1 point2 points 7 hours ago (0 children) a lawyer can help you. You can actually go to small claims court for this. atleast for a small monetary payment, or in regular civil court. because there IS a loss suffered, small claims are usually settled out of court by big corporations. claims in excess of their risk appetite on the other hand....yeah those get the full treatment. thing is there's a chance you might not win. but you should be making some noise and not sitting idly. good luck * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]megmaltese 0 points1 point2 points 5 hours ago (0 children) Let's hope a good competition to the Google Play market will come soon. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]GaiaPagan 0 points1 point2 points 5 hours ago (0 children) Just another reason to stop developing for Android. Android itself is great, it's that damn play store. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]steve6174 0 points1 point2 points 4 hours ago (2 children) They ban your personal developer account, however can you still access other google services like YT, gmail, saved passwords, etc? * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]nadalizadeh[S] 0 points1 point2 points 4 hours ago (1 child) Yes, Other google services are still working. * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]steve6174 0 points1 point2 points 4 hours ago (0 children) Oh thank god. I don't even have personal dev account yet, but I'm always scared when I see such stories, because for better or worse I rely heavily on google services and tbh the 3 things I care most are gmail, gpay and the password manager. I guess I should back up at least the last one just in case... * permalink * embed * save * parent * report * give award * reply [-]otterley 0 points1 point2 points 4 hours ago (0 children) /u/nadalizadeh you don't happen to be an Iranian national by chance, do you? Google, like many U.S. companies, has a complicated relationship with Iran due to our current sanctions regime. That would be one plausible reason they terminated your account; and I think it might be uphill battle to get them to reverse course. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]donyuh 0 points1 point2 points 3 hours ago (0 children) You have a chance, same thing happened to the company I work for. We had to sent them evidence that the company is fully independent and not associated with the developer in any way. It included sending them a certificate of incorporation and some other company legal documents. They reinstated the account after a few days. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]Sethaman 0 points1 point2 points 3 hours ago (0 children) I had a nasty run-in with google and literally had to threaten a lawsuit. They had a human address and fix the problem in a matter of days. Their systems are automated and efficient but sometimes someone will fall into a trap (like you seem to) and I guarantee a decent person isn't even looking at it. Write a formal and well-mannered email but threaten to sue. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]intoxicatednoob 0 points1 point2 points 2 hours ago (0 children) The best way to get eyes on this at google is by knowing someone that works there. I was lucky and had previous co-workers at google and they were able to assist me. I assume you don't know anyone there, so linkedin, twitter, social networking and industry conferences might be the best way to raise awareness to what you're experiencing. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]acm3Inc 0 points1 point2 points 2 hours ago (0 children) I am selling my Google stocks. Stories like this and App Stores in general are the reason I gave up on developing apps ages ago. If they want to prey and capitalize on your ideas they can just close your account and nobody can do anything. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply [-]Daiymas 0 points1 point2 points 2 hours ago (0 children) Continue to send appeals and find some reason to attach files/ screenshots to your appeals, doing this increases the chances that a human will handle your case because bots can't read them. * permalink * embed * save * report * give award * reply * about * blog * about * advertising * careers * help * site rules * Reddit help center * reddiquette * mod guidelines * contact us * apps & tools * Reddit for iPhone * Reddit for Android * mobile website * <3 * reddit premium * reddit coins Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy. (c) 2022 reddit inc. All rights reserved. REDDIT and the ALIEN Logo are registered trademarks of reddit inc. 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