Urgent issue with Google and Pingjam
I just had 2 Google apps created with Andromo flagged and REMOVED for violations due to system interference : https://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy.html#system-interference
My account can be banned (or anyone else using Andromo getting flagged for this) if they find any other apps that violate this, we need to find out why this is happening asap.
OK both these apps have the following things in common... Tapgage Ads, Ping Jam and PDF activity
Good god both of those advertising networks suck and now my account has been flagged for using them. If i had to bet I assume its Ping Jam.
I think Andromo needs to look in to this and see if they are violating Google Play's TOS, because accounts could be lost over this.
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
What a nice Saturday morning surprise...
It would appear that Google decided this morning that it does not like Pingjam - despite the fact that Pingjam is in compliance with an opt-in dialog at app startup:
"An app downloaded from Google Play (or its components or derivative elements) must not make changes to the user’s device outside of the app without the user’s knowledge and consent."
I would recommend that you turn off Pingjam in your apps, rebuild and update in Google Play, as stated in the email you received from Google: "If your developer account is still in good standing, you may revise and upload a new instance of the app that is compliant with the developer terms."
Start with one app to make sure.
We're investigating further and are hoping to hear back from Pingjam for their input as well.
Please let us know if you hear anything else from Google.
Thanks,
Colin
Hi Colin,
I am very sorry that the apps have been removed. I can
definitely feel the developers' pain and I really hope that all the apps
will be reinstated soon.
A small number of apps that have been
working with us has been removed today and we have reached out to our
contacts at Google to figure out what’s happening. We’ve been told that
before Monday there is nothing that can be done and that we can hope to be hearing back on Monday.
We
don’t know whether this is caused by us or not but to be on the safe
side, we have shut down our service so that the caller id isn’t working
anymore and neither are the ads. Hopefully this will prevent further
damage.
Throughout the past few months we’ve had multiple
conversations with Google and have repeatedly been assured that our
service is fully compliant and that as long as the user is aware that
they’re installing a caller id service then we are fine. If this turns
out to have changed - we will be very surprised. Regardless, we are here
to work with you to help get your apps back in the store.
I
recommend that the developers write an email to the Google team to ask
for explanation and to ask for the apps to be reinstated. We will keep
pushing on our end. If there’s anything that we can help with - please
don’t hesitate to let me know.
Thanks,
Elnor Rozenrot
Co-Founder & CEO, Pingjam
A further update from Pingjam that was emailed to their customers this morning:
Since
yesterday we've received several reports of apps which use Pingjam and
other ad SDKs being removed from the Play Store, citing violation of the
“System Interference” clause (http://play.google.com/about/
I’m writing to explain what we are doing to deal with this situation.
First
I’d like to assure you that the Pingjam SDK hasn’t behaved in any way
that violates the policy. No changes have been made to the device
without the user’s consent, and banned ad methods (icons, notifications
etc) weren’t used by us in any case.
Our
primary concern is that developers aren't hurt, so although we are
certain that our system is compliant, we've disabled the Caller ID
service until further notice. As of yesterday none of our apps display
caller ID or ads.
We
are working tirelessly to reach out to Google developer relations to
investigate the apps removal, but since this is the weekend our ability
to create a meaningful conversation is limited. I assure you that if
indeed we verify that Pingjam was the reason for this we will let you
know. Our goal is to help fix the situation so that apps are restored
with their install base and ratings.
In
the meantime, as a precaution, I'd like to suggest to those of you that
haven't lost apps that you remove our SDK from your apps and republish.
Those
of you that have lost apps - we are working very hard to try to
understand and resolve this with you. Let's share what we learn so that
we can help the community get their apps back. Please share what you are
doing in regards to communicating with Google. Hopefully we can
identify a best practice that helps us all.
Link to Google's appeal page - https://support.google.com/
I will keep you posted on our progress.
Elnor
this issue with Google on Monday, we're also looking into some options
on this side to make it easier to simply rebuild an affected app with an
alternate package name. Hopefully Pingjam and Google will be able to
work out their differences, as that is a better solution. It is very odd
though, as I personally can find no reason for Google to be mass
banning apps using Pingjam - there is a very clear opt-in dialog at app
startup. It's also not very cool that they decided to do this in the wee
morning hours of Saturday when nobody is working...
In any case,
we'll come up with a way for affected Andromo users to build with
another package name should that be the only option.
We have not heard anything further from Pingjam or Google about
http://blog.andromo.com/2013/andromo-app-maker-for-android-v3-2-8-released/their argument. So, we have gone ahead and released a new version
of Andromo today that lets you easily set an alternate package name
for your app.
It's on the App Info tab. Select the 'Alternate' option in the
'Package Name' field and rebuild. As it turns out, it's also a
handy way to create 'free' and 'paid' apps from the same project by
simply building once with the 'Standard' package name, then
disabling ads and building again with the 'Alternate' package
name.
Hi xxx,
It’s
taken us a lot of time and effort to try and talk with the right people
at Google and we now have unofficial confirmation that the bans where
due to our service. It seems that someone at Google changed their minds
about our service and has initiated this ban.
First, I want to personally apologize for this mess. You are suffering due to a service that we ran and we are really sorry.
Second,
we are continuing to work as hard as we can to get you reinstated. To
date, we have ran into a brick wall and all of our requests that you be
given 7 days to remove the SDK and reinstate your apps have been
refused. It seems that Google isn’t interested in providing any relief
to you. We know that for other ad networks 7 days warning has been
granted so this is especially surprising.
We
will continue to push our contacts at Google to try and get you
reinstated, but frankly - I don’t know if we will be successful.
If you still have apps with our SDK I’d strongly encourage you to remove the jar files from your app and republish.
Apologies again and I’ll keep you posted on our progress.
Elnor
http://forums.andromo.com/discussion/799/disable-pingjam-for-apps-on-google-play