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[–]isharing 53 points54 points  (15 children)

I had got the same stalkerware policy. The problem was not the app itself but the description. In my case “friend” and “track” or “monitor” keyword can’t be used together.

If your app description includes “monitor” or “track”, don’t include any person related keywords such as “friend”, “people”, “human”. If not, google considers your app can monitor the somebody’s activity.

[–]flashlightsmurf 55 points56 points  (4 children)

If that is indeed what happened, it sounds like something that should be easily fixable ... not a permanent account ban.

What is interesting here is Google puts so much faith on a week signal like that to permanently upend somebody's life, without recourse.

[–]mdwh 8 points9 points  (1 child)

And to think this is a company meant to be a world leader on AI ...

[–]GlitteringChoice580 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Google AI be like: "Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice that I am willing to make".

[–]MostlyVerdant-84 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What is interesting ...

That's how coercion works with oligopoly. There's supposed to be strong antitrust for very good reason.

[–]newInnings 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a good example of handover control to AI without a backup human

[–]mauros_lykos 5 points6 points  (3 children)

In my case “friend” and “track” or “monitor” keyword can’t be used together.

here is an app which uses all these terms in the description.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.woozcorp.grit

and there are many more. Kust search for the following

"friend" "track" "monitor" site:play.google.com

[–]DiggerW 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I mean, obviously there's going to be some speculation on exactly which terms might flag it, under what conditions, what other terms might also lower the OMG_Danger score, if & how sny kind of score is even calculated, etc.

Considering the reason Google cited, it's hard to imagine this theory being completely offbase, even if the term "AI" is being applied really generously their whatever mechanisms, surely it'd stll be something beyond a simple keyword search?

[–]mauros_lykos 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I don't think it's just some keywords that trigger it. Google is using analyzers that check the APK of the submitted apps for any "sketchy" pattern and compares it to your privacy polity.

For example yesterday there was a big discussion about NetGuard. In one hand you have the privacy policy stating "NetGuard does not collect any information" and on the other hand you can clearly see in it's source code that under some circumstances (the developer mentioned that it was a secret functionality) there was some code which was fingerprinting your device and sending these info to some email address (for debugging purposes as the developer mentioned). Although I believe them, this is an inconsistence and google's analyzers eventually caught that.

Here is the related discussion

https://www.reddit.com/r/androiddev/comments/15yazqw/google_is_going_to_remove_netguard_from_the_play/jxgxnbc/?context=3

[–]Mafiadoener36 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well its u who clicks on the mail app u wanna share it through, you who further edits the logcat, you who see the receiving mail adress in your mail app, and u who hits send inside a completely external application, though i dont think its netguard.

Btw hope google aint use that wording - as literally nearly no app nowadays (sadly) works wirhout "collecting" data. Literally any cache created could be considered "collecting data".

[–]madushans 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Google: we lead the world on cutting edge AI technology. Our motto is to organize the world's information.

Also Google: * writes a for loop that terminates 12 year old android developer account with millions of downloads based on regex *

[–]dep 0 points1 point  (2 children)

You'd think this would at least go into a queue for a human to "confirm" or "reject" :/

[–]londons_explorer 1 point2 points  (1 child)

The fact that the next email was many minutes later suggests that some human was looking through the account and decided to do a full account ban.

Either that human was mistaken or there is more to this story.

The human can be mistaken pretty often - these types of task are often done by someone who is non-technical and with a poor grasp of English. They are just trying to follow some rulebook that probably doesn't spell out what to do for this specific case.

Or... there might be more to this story. For example maybe the Devs laptop has been compromised and the new compiled and uploaded versions really are malicious. Google has no way to know if it is the dev who is malicious or someone who has rooted the Devs machine and made all compiled android apps contain their stalkerware.

[–]BuonaparteII 2 points3 points  (0 children)

many minutes later

nah... could easily be a robot. Google is so huge that it often takes days to scan through everything if you're doing a many-to-many lookup. Google Play Store has 3.553 million mobile apps. It takes time to iterate through that many items even with an efficient script. Email is also heavily rate-limited, even across internal Google products

[–]Beduino2013 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had got the same stalkerware policy. The problem was not the app itself but the description. In my case “friend” and “track” or “monitor” keyword can’t be used together.

If your app description includes “monitor” or “track”, don’t include any person related keywords such as “friend”, “people”, “human”. If not, google considers your app can monitor the somebody’s activity.

lol what a joke google and i thought there was nothing worse than the family friend, or the new teacher approved thing.. and wth is this new developer verification thing.. feels like they dont rly like all the external apps and devs, considering the amount of boilerplate and nonsensical things they keep adding.

[–]flashlightsmurf 60 points61 points  (1 child)

"Code that collects and/or transmits personal or sensitive user data from a device without adequate notice or consent and doesn't display a persistent notification that this is happening."

Pretty much sounds like Google's whole modus operandi, oh the irony.

[–]iWizardB 3 points4 points  (0 children)

"Do as I say, not as I do."
- Google

[–]simplaw 38 points39 points  (10 children)

Every time I see these kinds of posts I'm happy that - even though I main Android privately - I focus on iOS development. I am shocked and confused as to how Google can keep this shit up and not lose face. I used to wonder why the hell there are multiple app stores for Android, but now I'd be happy to post my app on several places just because of this.

Google's majority over the Android app markets is making them lazy and arrogant.

[–]SurrealClick 25 points26 points  (2 children)

Apple's good in that regard, decisions are made by humans. I hate Google's automated policy execution so much, your fates are decided by machines. Google's such an inhuman company.

[–]mdwh 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Although it was apple who started the idea of one main distribution site for an OS (although you can distribute elsewhere, in practice most people use Google Play). PCs are much better in that regard. I remember stories of applications being banned on ios for stupid reasons too.

Another frustration on Android is the constant pressure to be updating every application you've ever written due to constant OS changes, and I'm not sure ios is better there - again, it's PCs that rule on long term backwards compatibility support.

My future projects will focus on PCs, and more generally I won't allow one single "store" to dictate what I can release; there's no choice with apple.

[–]Mafiadoener36 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Apple is definitely not an empirically holy individual in those sketchy regard also - though "pc" as the savior? Microsoft threatens this extremely - sadly - with trying to pull everyone into they're shitty appstore.

[–]greenarez 3 points4 points  (6 children)

Man, 2 months pass Apple finance still trying to understand why they can't pay me

[–]simplaw -1 points0 points  (5 children)

Okay?

[–]greenarez 3 points4 points  (4 children)

It's about "Apple being good", "Apple has humans"

Edit: I'm about in-app purchases revenue

[–]simplaw -1 points0 points  (3 children)

Which isn't relevant to this.

Your issue isn't whether or not your account and livelihood is suddenly stopped away from you overnight, is it?

Why you have issues getting paid could be for any amount of reasons only you and Apple can figure out. It has nothing to do with this broad issue of Android developers posting daily about getting terminated after years of service and loyalty.

You just want to take a dump at Apple, so go do that elsewhere.

[–]greenarez 3 points4 points  (2 children)

Apple is mainly about in-app and selling the apps rather than ads, so blocking payments from in-app without reasons is the same as not getting any noticeable revenue from it

[–]simplaw -2 points-1 points  (1 child)

Sure. Does this happen daily to tonnes of developers?

Plus, I never even said 'Apple is good'. I don't even like Apple. I just prefer to work on their tech than Android. Always hated them, in fact. It's just that I can see the clear difference in treatment here.

But if you mena to imply that your issue also happens to tonnes of people, then why don't you go join ranks with them instead of trying to make some weird point here about something I didn't even say?

[–]greenarez 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think, it does not happen to tons because there is no such amount of developers

[–]Chilarai01 18 points19 points  (1 child)

I got my account terminated yesterday due to the suspension of a cleaner app citing Stalkerware Policy Violation . I am sure that most of the apps don’t actually violate the policy. It is an old policy then how can our apps bypass it earlier? It was a complete discrimination by google bots. I still see big names like Nox Booster and others that uses the word Booster which comes under the violation of Deceptive Behaviour Policy. Its sad how much effort you put in years and then one random night your app gets suspended and account terminated that too when you didn’t did anything wrong.Now i have zero trust on google.

[–]DanijelMarkov 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Same happened to me with Battery Guru...

[–]Safe_Mousse_5660 11 points12 points  (1 child)

Our Google account has also received a similar email, as our account was suspended due to the Stalkerware policy. However, our cleaner app had already been unpublished several months ago, and it had not engaged in any unlawful collection of user information. I am currently feeling confused and unsure about how to proceed with the appeal.

[–]Chilarai01 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hey sad to hear that even unpublished apps were also targeted. My app only had admob and admob collects data as we all know. I have clearly declared in the data safety section. In no way, my app was violating the above said policy and it was a clear mistake by google.

[–]NLL-APPShttps://nllapps.com 24 points25 points  (11 children)

Wow, Google's AI use getting redicilous. Perhaps post it to here https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/community I know they have a way to contact to policy team.

https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/10065487

Says: "Apps and app listings on Google Play must not provide any means to activate or access functionality that violate these terms, such as linking to a non-compliant APK hosted outside Google Play"

Did you have links to github.com and had apks on your open source app?

[–]mDarken[S] 11 points12 points  (9 children)

I did have links to GitHub, and yes via some amount of clicking you could download APKs, but:

  • For SD Maid 1 it would be the same APK as the Google Play versions though
  • and for SD Maid 2 it would be the FOSS build which has even "less" stalkerware as it's Google free...

So I didn't link to any "non-compliant APK".

Thanks for the link, did anyone have success reaching a human through that?

[–]NLL-APPShttps://nllapps.com 14 points15 points  (7 children)

Really sorry about what happened to you. Your station hits home. I have been on Google Play just about 13 years. I don't remember getting through a day without worrying such email.

It will probably be the apk that causing the issue ( I might be wrong)

If you read posts in the forun you will see they were able to help some developers.

As I understand Google PE guys have possibility to pass on information to people with contacts in policy team.

I would first appeal at https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/troubleshooter/2993242 then write a post explaining the issue properly.

[–]mDarken[S] 9 points10 points  (6 children)

I fear that if I appeal "wrong" that I miss my only chance. We are guessing that it's the "APK", and I feel like that would have been a different policy issue. Especially as the linked APKs not "stalkerware" either.

[–]NLL-APPShttps://nllapps.com 6 points7 points  (5 children)

Start at https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/troubleshooter/2993242 and write a comprehensive detailed response

[–]mDarken[S] 10 points11 points  (3 children)

Do you want to appeal the removal of individual apps in your catalog or termination of your developer account?

  • Account termination
  • Individual apps

Already stuck. I want to appeal both, but can only select one. I think suspending the apps for stalkerware is wrong, but if Google now thinks that they just don't want "cleaner apps", then I think the account termination is heavy handed as I didn't do anything malicious. If I just appeal the account termination they will find they are in the right because two app suspensions for "stalkerware" is appropriate. So I need to appeal the app suspensions? Or all? In which sequence?

If this gets processed like app reviews then even the order and word selection matters.

So lost :(

[–]NLL-APPShttps://nllapps.com 8 points9 points  (2 children)

I would start with account termination as it is the main problem.

[–]mDarken[S] 12 points13 points  (1 child)

With a clear head, at the moment it just feels like a bad dream.

[–]3domtest on Nokia + Samsung 7 points8 points  (0 children)

This can be bad but it's not the worst Android experience. Just today I awoke from a literal nightmare and then recalled my actual project situation and then I thought "holy crap, I wish Ive stayed in my nightmare where I was about to die falling from a skyscraper, still better than the project"

This whole development eco-sphere is a disaster.

[–]DanijelMarkov 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That wont help, I have exchanged 20+ emails in the last 3 months, all I got are the same, completely identical responses. This is how they threaten us, this is how they keep a healthy ecosystem.

[–]mntgoat 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I got an apk rejection one time because my app requires a companion app on other devices. It said, if you have an Amazon device just download the apk of the companion app, and it gave a link. This was a pretty hidden link though, had to click around a lot.

However it wasn't the stalker policy.

[–]kkgmgfn 10 points11 points  (0 children)

oh man I use.. i even am a paid member.. thats sad

[–]SarathExp 10 points11 points  (2 children)

hardest part is contacting an actual human from Google play

[–]ZhuindenEpicPandaForce @ SO 9 points10 points  (1 child)

Do actual humans actually work at Google Play?

I think they don't ever come here

[–]usenerreal 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah there are real humans but they are only sendings tweet to your posts and nothing else. They say send your appeal Id via dm, after that they say we cannot do anything :). In bots we thrust

[–]mDarken[S] 8 points9 points  (4 children)

I've submitted my appeal and now I'm waiting for the hammer to drop.

Trying to refute unknown proof of accusations, pleading for your career in 1000 characters or less, it all feels very dystopian.

[–]Chilarai01 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good luck. Yes its hard when you know the truth but truth loses in the hands of ai bots.

[–]Heromimox 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good luck my friend, I hope you will get a positive response

[–]jsdaix 0 points1 point  (1 child)

If they don't, would it be possible to sue them?

[–]tarek122 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Next step would probably be to request a mediation, which Google and an independent mediator participate in.

[–]omniuni 7 points8 points  (0 children)

This is very unfortunate. Your app was one of the few that were actually legitimately useful.

I'm guessing maybe it's because it was technically monitoring files, for which it's supposed to show a notification?

Either way, I hope this gets resolved.

[–]jdros15 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Man that sucks, I've been using SDM1 for a long time and I just bought the SE Pro. 😐

I hope you get it restored.

[–]TheS0rcerer 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Really sorry to read about your developer account. Something similar happened to mine, and I've been relentlessly trying to reinstate my account for 9 years now.

Here is my story https://itnext.io/%EF%B8%8F-google-terminated-your-play-store-developer-account-2e7dc828a8af

Your chances to have your account back are really low at this point.

You can try to contact the Play store support on Twitter, if you are lucky they will get back to you.

Do not give up.

One day things will change!

[–]Busy_Teaching_3942 5 points6 points  (2 children)

Sadly, I'm having the same problem with my health app. No way, he can modify the rules at will, and then remove your account. It sounds scary, but it really happened.

[–]mDarken[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Can you share a link to your app? Was the reason also "Stalkerware"?

[–]Heromimox 1 point2 points  (0 children)

OMG even the health apps???

[–]paolo4c 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Google ridiculous as always. I am a premium user of your app and Android developer. How can Goole close an account in this way?

[–]Heromimox 4 points5 points  (5 children)

You're not alone in this situation. Many popular apps with over 100 million installations have been suspended today, including Nox Cleaner.

[–]Chilarai01 1 point2 points  (4 children)

Yes these apps don’t seem to violate the policy. So, it is definitely google trying to remove all these apps citing random policies. But these suspensions are so severe that they automatically Lead to termination of dev account. (Nox ltd is still there but mine got terminated, there was no previous suspension nothing ; one strike and gone.)

[–]Heromimox 0 points1 point  (3 children)

I heard that kind of apps should add isMonitoringTool flag in the manifest or they will get removed due the same policy violation

[–]mDarken[S] 5 points6 points  (2 children)

The isMonitoringTool does not fit the use-case of a storage cleaner, if you add it, it would fall under other and require case-by-case approval. In any case, it's not a monitoring tool, and if this is suddenly required, it was not communicated beforehand.

[–]Heromimox 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Man, I'm feeling quite confused at the moment. However, considering that many apps from big companies have also been removed, I believe they might take some action regarding this issue. Best of luck, my friend. I hope you receive a positive response from them.

[–]Chilarai01 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I hope they’ll will treat everyone same whether big or small

[–]blipinskAndroid @Reddit | Creator of r/androiddevlauncher 4 points5 points  (2 children)

😱 oh man, so sorry this happened to you!

[–]mDarken[S] 4 points5 points  (1 child)

🙏 and I had so much fun yesterday with devlauncher till I got those mails...

[–]blipinskAndroid @Reddit | Creator of r/androiddevlauncher 3 points4 points  (0 children)

likewise, likewise... not gonna lie, I was shocked to see this post today

[–]tarek122 4 points5 points  (0 children)

So sad to hear! :( I've been using SD Maid for 10 years and its always one of the first apps I install on my rooted devices. I hope you'll get it figured out somehow. For the time being, I'm sure many would love to support you via Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee. Maybe you can think about it.

[–]Evol_Etah 5 points6 points  (0 children)

You need to cross post this on r/androidapps

We are all supporting and often recommend your app.

(Wish I got sd maid 2 before the hit)

Edit: nvm, saw the GitHub. Got it. LOVE YOUR WORK MAN!

[–]freeprince1982 9 points10 points  (1 child)

I hope Google recognizes what has happened and gives the devs back their apps and accounts.

[–]MapleBlood 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Sorry, no, they abandoned "don't be evil" long ago.

[–]Used-Magazine-6133 2 points3 points  (7 children)

I got this email last night too and my app is clean. It does not connect with external server, it has not firebase or analytics inside. The necessary permissions to work. Nothing more. I made the appeal but for the experience reading other developers, is very difficult to get back the account. This is terrible for me.

[–]Chilarai01 2 points3 points  (6 children)

Same here. What type of app it was?

[–]Used-Magazine-6133 2 points3 points  (5 children)

Tools to clean the phone too. Files repeated, empty folders and files, apps manager, explorer, etc. All sensitive permissions with right forms, always keeping informed users before to do something, wizards, etc. My app is on Play Store from 2014.

[–]Chilarai01 1 point2 points  (4 children)

Did u appeal ?

[–]Used-Magazine-6133 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Yes. And you?

[–]Chilarai01 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Yes my account was also terminated

[–]Used-Magazine-6133 0 points1 point  (1 child)

As I tell you in other thread, the damage is done even if the account is returned back. I can not believe what happened yet.

[–]mcnab4ever 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Sounds very similar to my experience with Google. Had an app that helped to block spam callers. Did not collect data, was all self-contained, no ads and was just free. They won't tell you what triggered their ban, so appeal is nearly impossible, since you're not sure what you did wrong.

Ended up getting my account terminated as well, along with an email that said if I ever tried to create a new account, they would know and automatically ban any account I tried to create in the future. Still have no idea what the actual problem was.

[–]reigorius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

they would know and automatically ban any account I tried to create in the future.

Challenge accepted?

[–]a1stardan 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Humans at Google aren't better either, most of the time, the human support I receive are dumb fucks who copy paste me replies or can't even comprehend basic English.

[–]Used-Magazine-6133 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think we should push and in public. Write to the Google business account in TW responding any tweet in its account. Let them see that we are many and we are normal people. Not criminals.

[–]Wishes4uX 2 points3 points  (0 children)

After updating the targetSDK to 33 and publishing my app, I received an email suspending my 10-year-old account.

[–]Maste_____ 2 points3 points  (1 child)

I've been self-learning Android development for about a year now. I've also been working on an app for my startup which is to be published by the end of this year to the play store. Posts like these, which contain rants of unlawful terminations, make me anxious about deploying my first app to the play store. I feel like I should have just focused on IOS dev right from the start since these unlawful terminations seem to be fairly common

[–]ZhuindenEpicPandaForce @ SO 0 points1 point  (0 children)

make me anxious about deploying my first app to the play store.

I've been an Android developer for 9 years, I do not have a personal Google Play developer account because it is a liability.

[–]NateDevCSharp 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Sdmaid???

[–]ZhuindenEpicPandaForce @ SO 1 point2 points  (0 children)

SD Maid

[–]Evol_Etah 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Happy Cake day!

[–]kwattts 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Same thing happened to me awhile back. You can keep pleading your case, usually a few months in between, although I never had any luck.

What's worse, and something to keep in mind if you create new dev accounts, any link to the blacklisted dev account will ban new accounts. Emails, addresses, phone numbers, private signing keys, app package names, avoid it all. It's super annoying.

And you know what? Your app is still installed and running by your app users. Any revenue, ad etc going straight to Google's coffers.

[–]blazincannons 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Do they nuke the associated Google account as well? If it was a Gmail account then dev would be losing access to his emails too, right?

[–]kwattts 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nah, only impacts Google play services. This includes Google back-end services used by the app, if they are using admob or the firebase services etc those will be 'turned off'

[–]SCphotog 2 points3 points  (11 children)

We all need to be pushing heavily against companies for which their exists no reasonable accountability.

I mean... we shouldn't have allowed these inroads to begin with, but hindsight is 20/20.

[–]geearf 0 points1 point  (10 children)

I think that was fairly obvious from the getgo, no hindsight needed here. We still need devs, and not just small indie ones of course, to stop pushing to the play store and start using something else, at least one but many would be better, then a client could be made to work on multiple stores so it'd be fairly transparent to the users.

[–]SCphotog 2 points3 points  (9 children)

I think that was fairly obvious from the getgo, no hindsight needed here.

I've been advocating for a LONG time... but not many people have been on board.

I use GrapheneOS and F-droid. I don't use the play store and I avoid google products - any predatory company where I can.

It's not easy to do but it gives me some small bit of peace of mind.

[–]geearf 0 points1 point  (8 children)

I think it has to start with devs, users will never care in enough numbers for such a thing.

[–]SCphotog 1 point2 points  (7 children)

Devs are in it for the $$. Google, FB/Insta - etc... provide them a path to get paid, so they are willing, almost eager to ignore the downsides.

We (users) get slow roasted - while once in a while a dev gets thrown right into the fire, but it's not often or common enough for any real resistance to start happening. (edit: when Google's system detects anomolies they adjust. When youtubers started being de-monetized and some pushback happened they were able to adjust and squash the talk)

Google inparticular has a stranglehold on tech... in general.

How the hell do we escape it now? Google's browser, youtube, google maps, Gmail... these things are entirely ubiquitous now.

People don't say internet search, they say "google it".

No one visits my website, they want my insta handle. ( I am a photographer)

FB is demonstrably fucking horrible but people are lining up to buy an Oculus device - cuz cheap. The data mining is ignored. The potential 'thought policing' that will come with eye-tracking is being ignored.

Youtube is the only viable platform for making money with video (correct me if I'm wrong).

Microsoft's OS is the virus at this point. Even being technicaly inclined and having been a "power user" (for whatever that's worth these days) for decades it takes an enormous amount of work - consistent with each update to prevent MS from spying on us, advertising to us, using our own networks and bandwidth to manage distributed computing - updates to other people's computers.

(FFS I can't even configure the fucking start menu anymore... I can't manage my own file manager. I don't want or need libraries or quick access but fuck me if I can remove them).

It's not my computer anymore? The bandwidth I pay for, I have no or very little control over?

Logitech's mouse driver software is spying and advertising to me. MY corsair KB's software/driver is doing the same. My motherboard's software to control the LED's is Sus AF. If I decide to update my video card driver I have to sit through a slide show of advertising... again, this is the bandwidth I pay for.

This could become an endless tirade... but I'll leave off. If you read this far, you probably understand.

I remember when the start menu was just alphabetical order and you could simply add or remove any shortcut - what the fuck was wrong with that?

[–]geearf 1 point2 points  (6 children)

> Devs are in it for the $$. Google, FB/Insta - etc... provide them a path to get paid, so they are willing, almost eager to ignore the downsides.

​

I remember being shocked in the early days of FB when I would see ads for a brand linking to their FB instead of their own site... It felt to me like they would eventually have to pay for it, not sure how that turned out though .

​

> How the hell do we escape it now? Google's browser, youtube, google maps, Gmail... these things are entirely ubiquitous now.

​

Hmmm, I'm not sure if the browser or email makes a huge difference in this case, the core of the former is FOSS with a variety of non-Googled final products and the later has no major network effect I think since it interconnects fine with any other email provider. Now Google search is bad, losing your spot on it could be the end of your business, and probably like with this topic no one would care.

​

> People don't say internet search, they say "google it".

Yeah I hate that, people voluntarily advertise for companies for free... It should be obvious not to do that.

​

> Youtube is the only viable platform for making money with video (correct me if I'm wrong).

​

That depends I think. Some people make a living with patreon/librepay, OF obviously and TikTok. Not sure what else but there's probably more, yet there was that one influencer that stormed YT's HQ with guns and shot people after she was banned cause she lost all her revenue stream.

​

> Microsoft's OS is the virus at this point.

​

I wouldn't know, I gave up on it almost 2 decades ago now, well I had to use it for work up to a decade ago. Maybe it's time you do as well, or maybe there's some hacked version of it that removes a bunch of the annoyance you have? Not sure since I don't use it...

​

> It's not my computer anymore?

​

That's how I feel Android is becoming, I mean so many apps won't work if you are the admin of your own bloody phone... That would never be accepted on desktop (yet?) but on mobile no problem... How will the future be? Scary!

[–]SCphotog 0 points1 point  (5 children)

Microsoft's OS is the virus at this point.

I wouldn't know, I gave up on it almost 2 decades ago now, well I had to use it for work up to a decade ago. Maybe it's time you do as well, or maybe there's some hacked version of it that removes a bunch of the annoyance you have? Not sure since I don't use it...

I run win 7 at work... yeah really. It's fine and bothers me far less than my win10 machines I use at home. This PC IS getting to an end of life scenario.

I have at least 1 Linux box currently... about to rebuild a little server box that had an SSD die a few months ago.

I cannot run anythig but Windows at work because of propritary drivers/RIP, CNC software that run my machines. There are 'some' alternatives, but at least one of my $20K printers won't function without Windows.

I even have a WinXP notebook that I use for automotive diagnostics... I only rarely use it, but it's still just fine.

[–]a1stardan 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You should also try to get hold of some journalists if possible, if this makes info news with other cleaning apps getting removed, they'll act quickly and faster to remedy. I hope atleast

[–]ClickDE 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I heard of it by a newsletter. Sad. I am using your app for years now and even bought the key, although I haven't used it that frequently anymore as my new phone has more than enough power and space.

I really hope they revoke that ban and relist the apps.

[–]Any-Virus5206 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A lot of "cleaner" apps on Android tend to be very sketchy, I'm guessing Google just tried to do a purge of them, but used AI or some algorithm, and your apps got caught in the crossfire.

I'd definitely try to just send a detailed appeal explaining the situation and how your apps were never "stalkerware" or spying on users. Good luck and I hope you get your apps reinstated.

[–]DanijelMarkov 2 points3 points  (6 children)

They are absurd with this stuff. They also suspended my Battery Guru app with nearly 2 mil downloads, for description and in app text.

[–]mDarken[S] 3 points4 points  (2 children)

Please share more!

  • Suspended as in "permanently suspended" and you'd have to re-upload a new app?
  • Did they terminate your account?
  • What policy did they accuse you of violating?
  • Did it have a happy end?

[–]DanijelMarkov 2 points3 points  (1 child)

  1. Exactly, permanently suspended
  2. No, but i got a warning
  3. Deceptive Behaviour, claiming to have features that are unable to be implemented. But actually all works, users can confirm, all functions are what they are claiming in official sources.
  4. Not at all, trying for 3 months now, constantly mailing them with proofs in order to someone do a check, but all I get is their bot Akira.

Sad but truth how they do threaten us developers who use their services and make them money. Instead of helping us resolving issues, to stay on their platform and having good quality software, from people that are really dedicated to their works, they just put out as a rubbish.

Edit: your account is suspended because 2 apps got the same violation in a short time span, sadly 😞

[–]Chilarai01 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Account termination depends on the type of violation. Malware and Stalkerware violation are serious ones so termination is inevitable. My two cleaner apps were suspended back to back in march this year, because of deceptive behaviour because i had a feature of phone boosting mainly force stopping running apps. My dev account had three suspensions. But my account was not terminated until this stalkerware came into the scene.. But i heard people with no previous suspensions got terminated because of just one stalkerware violation.

[–]Chilarai01 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Which policy?

[–]DanijelMarkov 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Deceptive Behaviour

[–]Chilarai01 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I lost two cleaner apps due to this policy earlier this year. Used ‘booster’ keyword but after suspension i still saw nox booster and z booster live.

[–]Beneficial_Ad9550 2 points3 points  (2 children)

If you pay for a Google One account you would be surprised at how much assistance you can get. In the Google One app there is an option to speak directly to their customer service who are available 24/7. And it is real people you speak to.

Seems like if you give money directly to Google for their services, they fall over each other trying to get in line to help you. I have a Pixel phone. Just one click of a button and I get as much assistance as I want. I've even spent over an hour explaining an issue I had where an app developer lied to me about a trial inside one of their apps but ended up charging me for an entire year's subscription which completely cleared my bank account. The Google representative I spoke to was extremely helpful but I know if I didn't have that Pixel phone and asked for assistance, I would never have even got a generic copy & paste auto reply email never mind any help from them.

You've only got to see on all Google's system apps in Play Store, they all have the exact same email address for support and it isn't even manned. You will never get any help that way.

I don't actually have an issue with some Google Policies such as not allowing any app with SDK lower than 23 to be installed in an android 14 device but others such as allowing AI to be banning entire accounts, not even allowing your other apps to stay on Play Store is quite frankly appalling when Google isn't actually known to have good AI anyway as we can clearly see with their Google Bard.

[–]mDarken[S] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Seems like if you give money directly to Google for their services, they fall over each other trying to get in line to help you.

Doesn't seem to apply if Google is "taking" money. They are have been taking 15-30% of my app sales for over a decade. Thousands of dollars. Still got nuked from orbit without warning or prior contact.

[–]Beneficial_Ad9550 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's a big difference between my circumstances and yours friend. I'm a customer of theirs who has.decided.to purchase one of their devices and pay premium £7.99 a month for 2tb of storage on Google One, you are not. It's bad PR not to offer customers good customer service for those who buy their products, it's good PR for them to be give the impression they are dealing with rogue app developers who they say have apps offering ridiculous excuses such as stalkerware because it increases their customer base exponentially. Do you think the main percentage of play store users come here or is aware of how invasive Google is? A lot of Google users will be conned into believing this stalkerware tale of theirs and then think they are a good company to give them their hard earned money to buy from purchasing their devices. Unfortunately the reality for you is very different. Google has countless thousands of app developers all.queueing up to put their apps in play store. It's saturated on play store now friend. Too much choice. Too many apps to choose from. Difficult to know which is best to download. The reality is my friend is you are just one of many app developers that they can afford to throw away like garbage. You are better off seeking alternative markets to offer for your apps. You might not get the sales you desire like you got from play store but at least they won't be as bad as Google where you can never be comfortable with staying there because they can decide to get rid of you whenever they please.

[–]usenerreal 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I read a post about a developer whose personal developer account is terminated. He goes to to the company where he worked for a while and connect their wifi. After this the company's GP account is terminated :D. How can Google thrust their AI so much i cannot belive. If AI will take power in hands in someday i hope it will not be Google's one.

[–]Chilarai01 1 point2 points  (6 children)

Hey did ur app had any way through which users can connect to it through email (for eg contact us option that sends email to you) ? I found a guy with similar violation citing this reason. He transmitted customer feedback to his mail

[–]mDarken[S] 1 point2 points  (4 children)

Not directly and not both.

SD Maid 1 had an "email to support" option, but that just opened their default email app with support@darken.eu and the app version inserted. SD Maid 2 had no email option.

[–]Chilarai01 -1 points0 points  (3 children)

Damn that maybe the reason. Even big apps like nox booster one booster have been suspended. Biggest crackdown ever man. Shocking

[–]mDarken[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

How can that be the reason if one app had it, and the other didn't have it, but both got banned for the same reason?

[–]Chilarai01 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Damn not sure what they are doing. Clearly this is a mistake by google. My app also didn’t have any contact us or email option. Did u try to appeal?

[–]mDarken[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not yet, but I will of course. Just don't know what to write yet. Did you?

[–]mdwh 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I believe the privacy policy rules require including an email contact in the application, so it'd be a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't...

[–]Billy_0451 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Time to clear the cache of all apps manually again.. :( the pixel experience

[–]TotesMessenger 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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[–]aabolftouh 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am really upset, I have been using this app before on my rooted phone, I can not realise what happened till now.

[–]mtbohana 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I hope Google fixes this soon.

[–]dexter2011412 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Jesus fuck this is so sad. I'm sorry, my heart goes out to you.

[–]Seedov 1 point2 points  (2 children)

As a user of the app, I'm also upset. I use both sd maid and netguard so I'm not happy at all. I was actually planning to buy a pixel phone. Now I changed my mind.

[–]a1stardan 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Giving Google more money is never a good thing.

[–]reigorius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What's the alternative?

[–]m3r1in 1 point2 points  (1 child)

How do we go about purchasing the new one? Could you possibly publish your app on F-Droid Marketplace? I was hoping to purchase the new one as the old app has been a saviour to me and I looked forward to the new an improved version.

[–]mDarken[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You can download the FOSS build from GitHub and use the GitHub Sponsors function.

[–]Important-Shame-8051 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just dump it same happened with me two years ago. Move to other platforms or just move to new carrier it's so bad. Google banning people left and right with small to none help from any actual human being in this process.

[–]Kabeeshs 1 point2 points  (5 children)

Unfortunately you cannot do anything about it since they are just making way for another corporate company to take your lead.

This always happens to indie developers where one big company decides to make their own version of sd maid and release it and to ultimately end the existing competition. Since you are an indie developer, you don't have any power over some large organisation.

So they take this as an advantage to kill most indie developers and go about their business as if nothing happened.

I personally feel this should be it.

[–]Chilarai01 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Yes, same practice in every other store eg: even in Samsung store, now you can’t publish apps as indie developer

[–]dwight_rassy 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Are you for real? This sounds so unethical by all means. Why can't an indie dev contribute to their store?

[–]Chilarai01 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can try for urself. You need DUNS number which is only possible if u r a business to upload on samsung store.These businesses only care about profit. Ethics don’t matter. Rumours said Samsung did this after a suggestion from big app companies.Samsung store was a good alternative for indie developers. But not any more. I was shocked by this decision but what can be do as we are just small indie developers

[–]Heromimox 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Actually, I've already published numerous apps on the Samsung Store. However, this was back in 2018, so I'm uncertain if things have changed since then.

[–]Chilarai01 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes rules were changed recently maybe a year back.

[–]usenerreal 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I am sorry for you. I found this post via a post on X. Google terminated my developer account 4 months ago with no reason. They say "we have strong proofs but we can't share" and also they are not letting us a creating a new account. I met so many people in this situation and if you are not a big company Google ghosts you. After i wrote this on X they reached me and wanted my appeal ID. After i sent they say you already got the answer. Yeah that is the point your bots answering our emails.I got 4 apps on the market and they are not even require internet connection all of them are newbie apps. Switch to the Apple. At least you are talking with real people not a dumb robot.

[–]Chilarai01 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Did they gave u ur account? And what policy violation did they say?

[–]Tired8281 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Are they libelling you? Will being on record as a stalker affect your future earnings potential?

[–]SoftSoluLabs 1 point2 points  (3 children)

also My Google Play Developer account 5 year old have been terminated for violating "Stalkerware policy"!

I got email say that my app Restore Deleted Photos & Backup has been suspended for violating Stalkerware policy, 12 minut later i got the shocked email no developer wants to get

[–]Heromimox 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Damn bro, may I ask you about the permissions that your app using, I believe some permissions such as MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE, QUERY_ALL_PACKAGE... Are very sensitive permissions

[–]Chilarai01 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did u appeal?

[–]Nihil227 3 points4 points  (4 children)

Honestly any cleaner or antivirus app on Android is always fishy since this is not needed, and tech illiterate people will install them on sight.

[–]mDarken[S] 38 points39 points  (0 children)

I agree that the whole category of apps is pretty fishy. This is what motivated me to to create SD Maid. No "boosting" or false promises, no bullshit, just free storage if you needed. Like a tool in the closet, use it when you are short on storage.

I'm okay with Google deciding what apps they want in their store, but just banning my account out of the blue? I had 0 suspensions before this, then suddenly 2 out of the blue, no prior warning, aaaand it's gone...

Feels like living with someone in an abusive relationship. Anything can set them off and today it's this and tomorrow it may be something else.

[–]MapleBlood 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Google Files app has literally inbuilt cleaner that starts popping up once you're low on storage.

So is it necessary or not?

[–]ZhuindenEpicPandaForce @ SO 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Google Files app has literally inbuilt cleaner that starts popping up once you're low on storage.

So is it necessary or not?

Even if Google Files has a built-in "cleaner" how does that directly imply "Google has the right to and should remove all competitors that offer this functionality"?

EDIT: you blocked me over this? this is why X will be the superior platform once blocking is nerfed 🤦

[–]MapleBlood 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Where did I imply it?! Geez, put down this strawman please (and go bother someone else).

I've responded to the preceding comment which could help you in understanding the context and the scope.

[–]letsthinkporusski 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Just to confirm, dude placed link on GitHub with working source code so anyone can download and later publish it ? 😐

[–]Heromimox 4 points5 points  (1 child)

I don't believe the issue is related to what you mentioned. Many apps, including cleaner apps like Nox Cleaner, have been removed from the store. It seems that Google is attempting to eliminate these types of apps. However, completely suspending or terminating an entire account seems unjust. It would be more reasonable to provide a warning notification before making a drastic decision such as terminating the entire account.

[–]nightdriveavenger 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just checked Play Store. Usually cleaner apps will spam the top downloads list. And now they are all gone. Weird.

[–]cracklookers -1 points0 points  (0 children)

its very sad to hear, I hope it will back soon on playstore

btw, is there any refund for purchased customers ?

[–]brunozp -2 points-1 points  (1 child)

Normally, that happens when the app has any action that is related to its purpose. For example if your app is a "phone cleaner" why does it have network connection, web requests, option to open a url? Then it gets flagged like this if it's not clear to user that it has it and what's its purpose...

[–]mDarken[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

SD Maid 1 had an anonymous update check which is mentioned in the privacy policy. The option to open specific URL related to consuming an unlock key that the user can click in link form. SD Maid 2 had neither of those, the internet permission in SD Maid 2 is only added by the Google Play billing dependency. Both apps got banned. I just don't see the pattern :(.

[–]dep 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's fucked up; I love this app.

[–]Noumenon72 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You need a better way of describing your app than "Both apps 'in short' free storage space." That's barely grammatical and too short to leave the impression "This app is not the kind of thing that could ever be stalkerware". I wasn't even sure by the end of this post whether your app was for monitoring your maid service or not. I think you'd be served better by "SD Maid is a tool that frees up disk space on your phone or SD card".

[–]kapirote 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Could it be related with the usage of the accesibility permission for something that it's not strictly accesibility?

I can see the relation as enabling accesibility permission could lead to the app actually seeing what is going on -therefore, spying/stalking- but I cannot think of much worse ways that Google could've communicated this rather than the way they did.

[–]mDarken[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Was my first thought too, but I've talked to other devs whos app also got banned and they didn't use an accessibility service.

[–]FuryNHC 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Ohhmaigaawd! I love your apps I've purchased sd maid 1/2 . I was about to upgrade to a new one Sorry to hear this, hope Google reaches out for this issue. And now I don't have your app to clean my phone I uninstalled it 2 days back to purchase a new one😭😭

[–]ZhuindenEpicPandaForce @ SO 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Thankfully you can still get the app from Github.

[–]mlemmers1234 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Disappointing, one of my favorite launchers seems to be removed at the moment. Hopefully they submit an appeal and have their application reinstated. Apex launcher one of the best stock launcher replacements.

[–]Chilarai01 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I though google only targeted cleaner and antivirus apps, even launchers are being targeted

[–]mlemmers1234 0 points1 point  (1 child)

No idea, but really would suck. Apex launcher is great, one of the most customized yet simple launchers available without feeling like a bloated mess of an application.

[–]Chilarai01 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They will get back they are big fishes

[–]fHaNtOmX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Came here after My apps were auto updating and play Store showed an error while updating SD Maid obviously because it was removed. I've been using SD Maid for a very long time. Hope you get back ☹️

[–]habylab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On Android 14, the context menu doesn't appear to enable accessibility service.

[–]Important-Traffic-35 0 points1 point  (6 children)

weather apps too, same reasons

[–]Chilarai01 0 points1 point  (5 children)

Which app? Can you name some?

[–]Important-Traffic-35 0 points1 point  (4 children)

first screen, z apps, sonwy owl

about 50% on previous charts

[–]Chilarai01 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Complete blunder by google bots

[–]mDarken[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

So far we have nuked cleaner apps, launcher apps and weather apps? I wonder if it is all for "Stalkerware"...

This should give us hope that this is all a huge mistake, right?

[–]Chilarai01 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I am 100% sure that it was a complete blunder by google bots but not sure whether google will admit its mistake or not. I heard that some health apps were also victims.

[–]Important-Traffic-35 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Weather app is for Stalkerware as I known.

And were shut down at the same time.

[–]Echon97 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have loved your app for years! I really hope you are allowed back on

[–]Spiron123 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the wonderful app. One of the earliest purchase and made some staunch 'no app purchase necessary' users grab your app.

Chin up and get us more apps, pls.

[–]reigorius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

FFS, damn you Google. I was reinstalling my phone and wondered why SD Maid vanished from my history of installed apps. I even paid for the pro version.