
Why Some Privacy Apps Get Blocked from the Android Play Store - wfjackson
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/08/28/why-some-privacy-apps-get-blocked-from-the-android-play-store/
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on_and_off
"says it was careful to build its product according to Google’s rules" Oh come
on. Apps that disrupt other apps have been banned from the store for a very
long time. Blocking ads from collecting metrics looks just like that, there is
nothing kafkaesque here. I get that they are trying to get some publicity from
this, but they could be honest about it ..

I don't like ads one bit but if you don't want an ad supported app, pay for
your apps (or use free ad-free apps)

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higherpurpose
Like the "security" reason Google gave when it banned all non-Chrome store
extensions from being installed in Chrome, this one is also very bogus.

First off, in this case Google hasn't even said it's banning the app for
"security reasons". It just banned it.

Second, if it _is_ for security reasons, Google should improve Android's
security architecture so something like this wouldn't be possible in the first
place. It shouldn't rely on policy. But my guess is it _wants_ some apps to be
able to control other apps like this, because that's how it can do its
tracking, too.

And isn't this how Android antivirus apps work, too? Don't they "interfere"
with other apps when they scan their code? Either way, this sounds like Google
would have to ban other classes of apps, too, if this policy were to be
applied fairly.

And once again we go back to _selective_ policy enforcement, which always
sucks.

