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Brutal, the frustration is palpable. Forgive my mobile engineering ignorance, but does developing on Android pose similar risks or is control less centralized t

Brutal, the frustration is palpable. Forgive my mobile engineering ignorance, but does developing on Android pose similar risks or is control less centralized to Google?

non-entity 7y ago
I recall seeing a few stories on here in the past few months regarding people's apps disappearing from Google Play and Google's support providing no real "support".
- CtrlAltT5wpm 7y ago
  Would you happen to have a link? I'm going through the same thing, and support is no help.
  - non-entity 7y ago
    I believe this was the most recent I read. https://medium.com/@tokata/how-google-play-terminated-a-developer-for-no-reason-e4d760e9f472 https://medium.com/@tokata/how-google-play-terminated-a-deve...
    - CtrlAltT5wpm 7y ago
      The situation in the linked article is way different than what's happening to me. In any case, I appreciate the response and link.
ngngngng 7y ago
It's worse on android. You'll lose access to every google account you have (email, photos, drive) and if you circumvent by creating a new account and are caught then you will be banned again as well as all of the accounts that are associated with the new account. This could potentially destroy an entire business if they hire a banned individual and get their entire company banned because of it.
- est31 7y ago
  Actually this makes me wonder if in 20 years you become unemployable if you had your account banned for whatever reason.
  - reaperducer 7y ago
    Possibly. Government agencies (Australia most recently) are starting to require citizens to use e-mail addresses from "trusted" partners. Google is one of those partners.
    - parliament32 7y ago
      Well this is certainly news. Lots of us use self hosted email or just whitelabelled domains. Can you link to a source or more info?
  - mr__y 7y ago
    I'm pretty sure that already in 2019 losing a linkedin accout might have serious effect on your career. Not completely unemployable, of course but this could have significant impact in some industries
    - JohnFen 7y ago
      I don't think this is true at all, or at least not outside of certain niches. I deleted my LinkedIn account years ago, and doing that had exactly no discernable impact on my career.
    - SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
      It means I'd stop getting bothered by clueless recruiters multiple times per day, which can only be a net benefit.
    - saagarjha 7y ago
      It's completely possible to get a job without a LinkedIn account.
- 7y ago
Ardon 7y ago
If anything the threat to Android developers is much worse, because of Google's habit of banning entire google accounts for any infraction. Recently, hundreds of people had their entire Google accounts banned (with that ban upheld on appeal) because they were sending a lot of emotes (By request!) to a streamer's chat. These people lost everything. Emails. Everything in their Google Drive. Over totally normal behaviour. Using a separate Google account to do your app development doesn't help, because they ban accounts they suspect to belong to the same person as well. So yes, the danger exists for Android developers too, and is much larger in scope.
- levesque 7y ago
  That's a crazy incentive to split your information across multiple services. These read like horror stories. I'd be in so much trouble if I got locked out of my google accounts.
  - Semaphor 7y ago
    > I'd be in so much trouble if I got locked out of my google accounts. I’d say then it’s time to start migrating everything to any kind of trustworthy entity. Google is the opposite as they’ve shown time and time again.
  - bragh 7y ago
    Yes, that case was a final wake-up call for me to start migrating as much as I can away from Google. Phone is the hardest part - I do like Android much more than iOS, but the risk of getting randomly banned by some deep neural net without any recourse is something that I can't accept anymore.
- conradfr 7y ago
  Sometimes I wonder who are the developers that coded that and if they're proud of their work, destroying a not so insignificant part of many people's live.
  - sneak 7y ago
Jyaif 7y ago
You don't need a Google Account to release an app on Android, but it won't be via Google Play.
jayd16 7y ago
Technically yes, you can only be banned from the Google Play Store, and you can still host your own app binary. When you consider how many users only look in the app store, the power is still effectively absolute.
duxup 7y ago
Similar risks on Google. I know a small team of 3 devs who were developing along just fine. Their app on the play store was mildly popular (relative to a new app) and gaining traction and then their accounts were shutdown without warning. They received no meaningful response from Google that wasn't effectively "We looked into it" and they just kept them locked out. No explanation why. They came up with the theory that one of the devs had worked at a company that after he left was associated with some scummy practices where they would buy apps and turn them into spyware. They figured google somehow associated that company's apps / acts to that one developer and then it was guilt by association from there. Sadly that company was still active under new names and the 3 devs who weren't associated with them couldn't get around their ban. For the record I personally can't confirm any of this except to say I do trust the folks I know that were involved.

Brutal, the frustration is palpable. Forgive my mobile engineering ignorance, but does developing on Android pose similar risks or is control less centralized to Google?

non-entity 7y ago

I recall seeing a few stories on here in the past few months regarding people's apps disappearing from Google Play and Google's support providing no real "support".

CtrlAltT5wpm 7y ago
Would you happen to have a link? I'm going through the same thing, and support is no help.
- non-entity 7y ago
  I believe this was the most recent I read. https://medium.com/@tokata/how-google-play-terminated-a-developer-for-no-reason-e4d760e9f472 https://medium.com/@tokata/how-google-play-terminated-a-deve...
  - CtrlAltT5wpm 7y ago
    The situation in the linked article is way different than what's happening to me. In any case, I appreciate the response and link.

ngngngng 7y ago

It's worse on android. You'll lose access to every google account you have (email, photos, drive) and if you circumvent by creating a new account and are caught then you will be banned again as well as all of the accounts that are associated with the new account. This could potentially destroy an entire business if they hire a banned individual and get their entire company banned because of it.

est31 7y ago
Actually this makes me wonder if in 20 years you become unemployable if you had your account banned for whatever reason.
- reaperducer 7y ago
  Possibly. Government agencies (Australia most recently) are starting to require citizens to use e-mail addresses from "trusted" partners. Google is one of those partners.
  - parliament32 7y ago
    Well this is certainly news. Lots of us use self hosted email or just whitelabelled domains. Can you link to a source or more info?
- mr__y 7y ago
  I'm pretty sure that already in 2019 losing a linkedin accout might have serious effect on your career. Not completely unemployable, of course but this could have significant impact in some industries
  - JohnFen 7y ago
    I don't think this is true at all, or at least not outside of certain niches. I deleted my LinkedIn account years ago, and doing that had exactly no discernable impact on my career.
  - SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
    It means I'd stop getting bothered by clueless recruiters multiple times per day, which can only be a net benefit.
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    It's completely possible to get a job without a LinkedIn account.
7y ago

Ardon 7y ago

If anything the threat to Android developers is much worse, because of Google's habit of banning entire google accounts for any infraction. Recently, hundreds of people had their entire Google accounts banned (with that ban upheld on appeal) because they were sending a lot of emotes (By request!) to a streamer's chat. These people lost everything. Emails. Everything in their Google Drive. Over totally normal behaviour. Using a separate Google account to do your app development doesn't help, because they ban accounts they suspect to belong to the same person as well. So yes, the danger exists for Android developers too, and is much larger in scope.

levesque 7y ago
That's a crazy incentive to split your information across multiple services. These read like horror stories. I'd be in so much trouble if I got locked out of my google accounts.
- Semaphor 7y ago
  > I'd be in so much trouble if I got locked out of my google accounts. I’d say then it’s time to start migrating everything to any kind of trustworthy entity. Google is the opposite as they’ve shown time and time again.
- bragh 7y ago
  Yes, that case was a final wake-up call for me to start migrating as much as I can away from Google. Phone is the hardest part - I do like Android much more than iOS, but the risk of getting randomly banned by some deep neural net without any recourse is something that I can't accept anymore.
conradfr 7y ago
Sometimes I wonder who are the developers that coded that and if they're proud of their work, destroying a not so insignificant part of many people's live.
- sneak 7y ago

Jyaif 7y ago

You don't need a Google Account to release an app on Android, but it won't be via Google Play.

jayd16 7y ago

Technically yes, you can only be banned from the Google Play Store, and you can still host your own app binary. When you consider how many users only look in the app store, the power is still effectively absolute.

duxup 7y ago

Similar risks on Google. I know a small team of 3 devs who were developing along just fine. Their app on the play store was mildly popular (relative to a new app) and gaining traction and then their accounts were shutdown without warning. They received no meaningful response from Google that wasn't effectively "We looked into it" and they just kept them locked out. No explanation why. They came up with the theory that one of the devs had worked at a company that after he left was associated with some scummy practices where they would buy apps and turn them into spyware. They figured google somehow associated that company's apps / acts to that one developer and then it was guilt by association from there. Sadly that company was still active under new names and the 3 devs who weren't associated with them couldn't get around their ban. For the record I personally can't confirm any of this except to say I do trust the folks I know that were involved.