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The thing about blogspam is that it often generates confusion. The author took some liberties with his conclusions which explains some of the comments below.
by yanw 14y ago
The thing about blogspam is that it often generates confusion.
The author took some liberties with his conclusions which explains some of the comments below.
Here is a more informed post: http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/03/13/breaking-google-has-begun-purging-ad-blocking-apps-from-the-play-store/ http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/03/13/breaking-google-has-...
First: Adblock for Android was purged from the Play store. Adblock for Chrome is still available.
As to why it was removed, it is said that it is in violation of section 4.4 of the Play Store Developer Distribution Agreement:
4.4 Prohibited Actions. You agree that you will not engage in any activity with the Market, including the development or distribution of Products, that interferes with, disrupts, damages, or accesses in an unauthorized manner the devices, servers, networks, or other properties or services of any third party including, but not limited to, Android users, Google or any mobile network operator. You may not use customer information obtained from the Market to sell or distribute Products outside of the Market.
How so?
By rootless-ly changing proxy using an exploit that was patched in 4.2.2: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=40506 https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=40506
- huhtenberg 14y agoDid you just delete your earlier comment and reposted it as this ^ one? Please don't do that.
- yanw 14y agoDid a summary instead of replaying to multiple comments.
- huhtenberg 14y agoJust post another one. There are no comment caps :)
- flyinRyan 14y agoBefore you spend a lot of time on this person, I would check their comment history...
- mtgx 14y agoI'm not sure if I support this move or not, because I do want developers to get paid, and mobile ads don't bother me that much, especially since if I'm using a free app or game I'm usually with Wi-fi and 3G data turned off. I do use Adblock on the desktop Chrome, though. What bothers me though is that broad policy of Google there. According to that policy I think we can assume any app that uses root access could fall under it, and also any tethering app as well, which could be seen as "interfering with the network operator". In most cases it, they're probably not enforcing these rules, but it still gives them enough room to selectively enforce it whenever they want.
- itry 14y agoWow! That proxy-bug means that the author of every app is able to read all of my network traffic! Its really amazing what kind of glaring security holes Android devices have. And how little media attention is spent on it. Is it still so, that on Samsung devices every app has full memory access? (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4931944 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4931944)
- yanw 14y agoThey patched the Exynos bug: http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/16/3883238/samsung-exynos-security-patches-delivered-to-first-devices http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/16/3883238/samsung-exynos-sec...
- itry 14y agoInteresting. The article sounds like only a few devices have been patched.
- ygra 14y agoThis was in January. Updates and patches are usually rolled out staggered, that is, not every device gets the update immediately. That helps in not overloading any servers and also helps in finding potential problems before every customer is affected. So I'd guess by now they should be all patched.
- bruceboughton 14y ago>> That helps in not overloading any servers Pure apologism.
- andybak 14y agoYep. No excuse for delaying security updates by anything other than a bare minimum. There's other ways to spare your servers if that's the real problem.
- 14y ago
- mistercow 14y ago>The thing about blogspam is that it often generates confusion. How do you reckon that this is blogspam? That's not just a general term you can toss at any post that you find lacking. It has a specific meaning.
- anon1385 14y agoLook at the commenters history. They only ever post on stories that are negative towards Google, and only ever post comments defending Google and often use generic attacks like 'blogspam'. http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=yanw%20blogspam http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=yanw%20blog... http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=yanw+FUD&start=0 http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=yanw+FUD...
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- mistercow 14y agoHmm, that is a very suspicious comment history.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- ojiikun 14y ago> How so? By rootless-ly changing proxy using an exploit that was patched in 4.2.2 I'm not certain I buy this explnation. AdAway (a alternative FOSS adblocker) was also kicked out of the store for a violation of section 4.4 and they do nothing like use a proxy exploit. They simply let you customize your .hosts file and explicitly require root.
- bo1024 14y agoYes, it looks like from the link that they are kicking out every adblocker. I can't see any explanation for how what you describe "disrupts, damages, or accessses in an unauthorized manner" anything. Seems like a purely greedy, evil move by Google to me (and I try really hard to be a Google fan too....).
- VikingCoder 14y agoYou can't see how it disrupts anything? It steps in-between two third-parties: The person who developed an app that shows ads, and the people who bought the ad space.
- fulafel 14y agoIndeed. This demonstrates Google is committed to delivering audiences to advertisers rather than letting users control their devices. Never give root to your users...
- VikingCoder 14y agoYou can absolutely control your device. You can download apps, or not download apps. If an app developer says, "Hey, you can use this app if you let me show you ads!" you can agree to that or not. Google is committed to letting an app developer offer you that deal, and they're taking a step towards making sure you hold up your end of the bargain. If a farmer's market set up shop in your town, and little kids stole the merchandise all the time, you'd want them to hire a security guard, wouldn't you? And you can still install from the APK. So, you're really just whining that Google doesn't THEMSELVES make it easy for you to bypass the ad market.
- white_devil 14y agoOh look! -It's a Google fanboy apologist! Obviously, this is a good thing because it lets all Android users enjoy The Full Open Web, now that it's been Opened up a bit more. Open is Good. Google is Open. Google is Good. Open open open.
- nailer 14y agoTBH I wouldn't mind them blocking AdBlock Plus for simple reasons of harming content creators. If people don't want ads that's fine, they don't have a right to view my content. I know HN isn't, but it should be, on the sides of creators.
- ryanhuff 14y agoIf this was such a huge problem, the content creators could certainly use an alternative method of displaying ads within their app.
- Steko 14y ago"TBH I wouldn't mind them blocking AdBlock Plus for simple reasons of harming content creators." Under this logic they should block photo, audio and video capture apps...
- flyinRyan 14y agoIf you want to be paid for your content charge for it. If you put it open on the web then I have the right to consume it how ever I like. That's kind of the point of the web...
- nailer 14y agoThe point of the web is to share knowledge. Advertising pays for knowledge to be created and published.
- rozap 14y agoNo one ever insinuated that Google is completely open with Android. That would be a ridiculous claim. However, I think it's hard to argue that the ecosystem is more closed off than iOS or Windows Phone. Until Firefox OS and Ubuntu for Android get a foothold, your argument is just not very compelling.