The Evil and All Powerful Google Bot

[WAZUMBi]

My original accounts were banned in November '14 and January.

I waited 8 months to try again and did all the expected things.
I Changed IP, different user name (A relative), credit card, bank account, computer, developer name, app names, package names, and even the icons. I also created a new AdMob account.

Since I read that Google actually scans the code for likeness and patterns I even moved around sections of code, changed variable names, function names, created false modules and classes. Anything to attempt to confuse the All Mighty.

He was not fooled!

All was going well until the fifth re-submission. They somehow linked the app to one of the apps from my previously banned account and promptly suspended it.
They are saying I am using someone elses app or am trying to pretend I am somebody else.

Yet again the EVIL GOOGLE BOT has shown his ungodly powers.
Beware of the merciless all powerful Google Bot.
He will strike without warning and unleash hell on you.
He is everywhere and knows everything!

 

[sorex]

Can you remind me again why you were banned? you did mostly games if I recall right.

 

[WAZUMBi]

Apparently Google does not like when you show interstitials on exiting the app.

I have seen this practice on countless apps that my kids and myself download.
It never occurred to me that it considered such an inhuman thing to do.

Personally I prefer this over a random interstitials popping up in the middle of a game so I stuck with just one interstitial popping up on exit.
Nothing else but a simple banner. That was it.
I used this format for almost a year without any issues and then came the suspended app. Then another within minutes.
Luckily I was at my computer at the time and saw what was happening.
I logged into my developer account and immediately unpublished all of my apps but it was too late.

The dreaded third strike came and BAMMM! Developer account TERMINATED!
This all happened within minutes.
A few months later my second account... TERMINATED!

And of course once this happens there is virtually no hope of ever getting human help, useful feedback, or reconsideration from Google. You are terminated!

 

[sorex]

one might wonder why all the others that use the same ad-on-exit method didn't get banned at all.

Apple rejects a lot aswell but you get an explanation from a human and you can reply to it.
This requires more employees but I guess Google has enough cash to have some extra people for that task.

 

[ilan]

It doesnot make sense, if the problem was only the interstitial ad then they would only terminate your admob account what does it have to do with your developer account??

I think they did it because a different reason.
Maybe flappy bieber was the reason. Use famous personality in your app could bring some problems.

 

[LucaMs]

one might wonder why all the others that use the same ad-on-exit method didn't get banned at all.

I used this format for almost a year without any issues

It is possible that the apps he used had not been checked.

However, I've read that some programmers have not received sufficient informations about the "crime" they committed.

I love you, Google Play: in fact, I hope that many other markets will be born.

 

[sorex]

I hope that many other markets will be born.

there are a lot but who's using them when you have Google Play as default app install tool on most devies already?

 

[JohnK]

Apparently Google does not like when you show interstitials on exiting the app.

I have seen this practice on countless apps that my kids and myself download.
It never occurred to me that it considered such an inhuman thing to do.

Personally I prefer this over a random interstitials popping up in the middle of a game so I stuck with just one interstitial popping up on exit.
Nothing else but a simple banner. That was it.
I used this format for almost a year without any issues and then came the suspended app. Then another within minutes.
Luckily I was at my computer at the time and saw what was happening.
I logged into my developer account and immediately unpublished all of my apps but it was too late

Is there anything that makes you so sure it was the interstitial ad on exit? and not something else?

 

[WAZUMBi]

Maybe flappy bieber was the reason. Use famous personaklity in your app could bring some problems.

No this was long before this happened.


I've since deleted all of those (pretty useless) emailing informing of the app suspensions.
They said something about posting content outside of the app after it has been closed:

Interstitial ads may only be displayed inside of the app they came with. Forcing the user to click on ads or submit personal information for advertising purposes in order to fully use an app is prohibited. A prominent and accessible target must be made available to users in any interstitial ad so they may dismiss the ad without penalty or inadvertent click-through.

 

[JonPM]

Time to focus on iOS?

 

[WAZUMBi]

Yep. I'm getting a Mac in a few months.

 

[JonPM]

Hosted builder

 

[Derek Johnson]

Interstitial ads may only be displayed inside of the app they came with. Forcing the user to click on ads or submit personal information for advertising purposes in order to fully use an app is prohibited. A prominent and accessible target must be made available to users in any interstitial ad so they may dismiss the ad without penalty or inadvertent click-through.

That's interesting in regard to moving to IOS because I've come across some IOS apps that break that very rule. In particular the game "FreeCell" and other card games by MobilityWare display full page ads between games; not a bad way of doing things and I don't mind that. However just occasionally an Ad comes up, I think that is Fortune500 or something similar that cannot be dismissed from the page. If you click the x on the Ad it opens the link anyway. Presumably this is what Google is trying to ban with the above requirement. Maybe this is a rogue advertiser.

I was just trying to get a sample of this to show, but I couldn't manage it today - perhaps it's got the VW feature so it doesn't show up when you try to test it.

 

[WAZUMBi]

Disallowed interstitial implementations:
https://support.google.com/admob/answer/6201362?hl=en&ref_topic=2745287

By the time I found this it was already too late.