[petition] Google requires physical address to developers !!!

LucaMs said:

Am I wrong or the expiration date was September 30?

So now we should read the private addresses of the developers in the pages of Google Play, but it is not.

I think that Google will take a step back.

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You actually can read them right now...

MarcTG said:

You actually can read them right now...

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I have only run a search using a browser (PC), but I do not see private addresses.

I'll try again.

I can guarantee that there is absolutely no way I'm going to make my physical developer address (my home address) publicly available on Google Play. I'll give the address to Google, if they keep it private. I don't generate enough income to justify acquiring a physical company address.

I won't offer support to anyone coming to my front door. More likely, I will call the police.

I provide support by email. I am not selling a physical product – no physical support is needed.

I do not want my address publicly visible. There are plenty of crazy stalkers and people with shotguns who might be upset that some ridiculous feature is missing from one of my apps. I'll give them their $.99 back.

I don't want my address listed on some publicly available website for all spammers to scrape and start sending me junk postal mail in addition to the thousands of junk emails I get every day.

I would not be surprised to find out that Google's agenda includes becoming more valuable to advertisers by displaying a developer's physical address.

Barry.

MarcTG said:

So you mean that someone will bother sending a letter for a $1-2 app? Last I checked a post stamp was $0.46 ($0.49 soon)... What's wrong with just sending the developer an email? When did that become old fashioned?

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I mean nothing, I care about nothing. If you don't agree to publish your public address and the name of your nephews, you don't have to sell thru Google's app store. Who cares ?

lemonisdead said:

I mean nothing, I care about nothing. If you don't agree to publish your public address and the name of your nephews, you don't have to sell thru Google's app store. Who cares ?

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Probably no one where you're coming from... I guess privacy and freedom is not something appreciated by everyone.

lemonisdead said:

I mean nothing, I care about nothing. If you don't agree to publish your public address and the name of your nephews, you don't have to sell thru Google's app store. Who cares ?

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Play Google has almost achieved, thanks to its capacity, the total monopoly of sales of Android apps (there are also laws against monopolies, but that's another story), then sell through Google is almost a "must"... UNFORTUNATELY !

MarcTG said:

Probably no one where you're coming from... I guess privacy and freedom is not something appreciated by everyone.

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So Firefox Os is yours ;-)

lemonisdead said:

So Firefox Os is yours ;-)

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If you are so happy about developers addresses being exposed, why did you limit the people that can view your profile on this forum? Hypocrisy at its best ;-)

MarcTG said:

If you are so happy about developers addresses being exposed, why did you limit the people that can view your profile on this forum? Hypocrisy at its best ;-)

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Sorry. What did I on this forum ?
My business address is already exposed and my numbers too. When you make an invoice too. On business cards... Web site. Etc.

I don't think there's a need to start a war on this forum because of a Google's decision (which is probably a judge decision; there are so many court proceedings against Google). LemonIsDead is a professional independent developper and I perfectly understand that she wants to see the other developpers play the game with the same rules. In France, a professional developper has to communicate publicly some informations on his/her web page: name, address, phone number, registration number. On the Play Store, unless that a french judge decides in a different manner, we are considered as professionals (it's a shop where we sell our products) and, logically, we should obey the same rules that prevail outside the Play Store. The LemonIsDead's point is perfectly valid. But we can disagree with it. Some eBay sellers are considered as professionals, some others are not. For french judges, it depends whether the sales are occasional or a regular source of income, whatever may be the earned amount. I think that we should be considered the same way on the Play Store. There are other points to defend, but in the end, I don't think that Google will apply stricly its new policy. If you put your city and country, that should be enough. Everyone will be happy and your privacy won't be in danger (don't forget that you can give many clues about your home address on Facebook and other forums through pictures, comments, blogs...).

Some paranoia goin on around here.
Oh screw it. I'll just get it over with:

WAZUMBi!
1599 N Norma St. #31
Ridgecrest, Ca 93555

Come on over. We'll have a few beers. Talk shop. It will be a blast.

Guees I'll have to start locking my door now.

WAZUMBi said:

Some paranoia goin on around here.
Oh screw it. I'll just get it over with:

WAZUMBi!
1599 N Norma St. #31
Ridgecrest, Ca 93555

Come on over. We'll have a few beers. Talk shop. It will be a blast.

Guees I'll have to start locking my door now.

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Paranoia?

I wonder why I do not know any addresses of famous people.

Also, I bet that is the address of... your mother-in-law

LucaMs said:

I wonder why I do not know any addresses of famous people.

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Actually selling maps of the stars houses has been a bussines for decades in many cities.

You really think your address and private information is confidential and totally hidden from the world.

There have been major data breaches at literally every major retailer that I can think of in the past few years. Target, Sears, Kmart and Home Depot most recently. I've shopped at all of these with either a major credit card or their store cards.

I occasionally buy and sell on Ebay. They too had a major data breach recently.

About a year ago I got a landline (I know, what the heck is that?). I did it as a favor to my son who works for a cable company. Anyway, The SAME DAY (not kidding here) it was installed I got telemarketing calls from people who asked for me by name despite my number being unlisted.

I often wonder how I get solicitations by mail when my address is also not listed in the phone book.

One time I got a carefully crafted and nicely written post card from a local women offering a reward for her little lost kitty. What? Everybody that I new in the neighborhood got one also. It had our names on them. I called and asked how she got such information. She initially refused but after many requests and threats of a law suit my suspicions were confirmed. As it turns out she works for the local water company. She was able to pool local addresses and names form the companies database. Now I could care less that she new my name. I was more concerned about how she obtained such information that was supposed to be confidential. A gross misuse of company and private information for personal use.

I have a California business tax license. I also has a federal EIN number. The federal government and state needs my address for this. All public record for anyone who wishes to see.

I went to peoplefinders.com (there are of course many others) and within seconds found info about myself including current and past cities. For a minimal fee I'm sure I could have gotten more specific information.

Anyway, my point is that if someone really wants my address there are plenty of ways for them to get it. I'm not going to stress about the hardline bullying tactics of Google Play anymore. They will start to fade away or at least become less and less important.

Oh, and lets not forget about the NSA.

Also, I bet that is the address of... your mother-in-law

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Actually it is my address. My mother in-laws address is ...


Naw, I don't hate her that much.

Informatix said:

I don't think there's a need to start a war on this forum because of a Google's decision (which is probably a judge decision; there are so many court proceedings against Google). LemonIsDead is a professional independent developper and I perfectly understand that she wants to see the other developpers play the game with the same rules. In France, a professional developper has to communicate publicly some informations on his/her web page: name, address, phone number, registration number. On the Play Store, unless that a french judge decides in a different manner, we are considered as professionals (it's a shop where we sell our products) and, logically, we should obey the same rules that prevail outside the Play Store. The LemonIsDead's point is perfectly valid. But we can disagree with it. Some eBay sellers are considered as professionals, some others are not. For french judges, it depends whether the sales are occasional or a regular source of income, whatever may be the earned amount. I think that we should be considered the same way on the Play Store. There are other points to defend, but in the end, I don't think that Google will apply stricly its new policy. If you put your city and country, that should be enough. Everyone will be happy and your privacy won't be in danger (don't forget that you can give many clues about your home address on Facebook and other forums through pictures, comments, blogs...).

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Fred, I have no personal issue with my address being on there, it doesn't matter to me because I have posted it on Bing and Google as a business location. I am concerned that this will be an issue for some developers living in other countries. Let me put it this way, not every developer is living in California or France and not every user is a good old boy from Texas or London... Will users judge an app based on where the developer is coming from? Bad ratings? Boycotting? What happens if a developer makes some controversial app? Will they be getting threats in the mail?

My point is that some people don't get that this is something that might affect developers from all over the world, they are narrow minded and can only think of themselves.

I might be over thinking here, but this a crazy world, you can expect anything...

MarcTG said:

I am concerned that this will be an issue for some developers living in other countries.

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I completely agree. I don't think that people see an app written by a french, a russian, an iranian or a chinese with the same look depending on where they live and what they think of the rest of the world.
People can really and quickly become hateful when they are unhappy with your app. Being in the "wrong" country won't help. Being too close neither, especially when you realize that the guy is just a few blocks away... Even in this forum, yet visited by civilized and courteous people, I've already seen unpleasant comments on the origin (french, greeks, chinese...).
What annoys me most is that the real consumer protection is less to reveal the details on the developer location than to remove from the Play Store all these softwares of dubious quality whose sole purpose is to display advertisements or steal information (look at the permissions asked by most applications just turning the camera flash on). There are no such junk in the Apple and Amazon stores.

Informatix said:

What annoys me most is that the real consumer protection is less to reveal the details on the developer location than to remove from the Play Store all these softwares of dubious quality whose sole purpose is to display advertisements or steal information (look at the permissions asked by most applications just turning the camera flash on). There are no such junk in the Apple and Amazon stores.

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I agree... Unfortunately some of those trash apps have lots of downloads and lots of high ratings (don't know why) and Google ranks them well because of that. They usually have:
- Trash content; no time or imagination was spent creating them
- Sluggish even on the latest and greatest devices

Advertisement doesn't bother me when it is implemented within the app, what bothers me is when the ads are poorly implemented and keep in the background even when the app has been closed (or device rebooted). Many times I do mass uninstalls of apps just to find/remove a silly app slowing down my phone and draining my battery.

Thank you very much for your comments, I appreciate every point of view even if it differs from mine.

The thing that makes me nervous is not (only) the publication of developer's address. It's only the top of the iceberg. My feel about Google latest actions is F-E-A-R. Don't wanna seem exaggerated and/or paranoic but sooner or later they will do as in George Orwell's 1984. Every day I read about its new company acquisitions (robotics, augmented reality, satellite control...). Google already knows almost everything of us, they have our phonebook, our home/office addresses, our calendar events, our emails, our photos and so on. And they already relate the pieces of this tremendous mass of information. Moreover they are pushing Android, and with it our mobile devices, to unacceptable paths, an example is Kitkat and its block of MicroSD external cards: the real thing behind that choice is to force users to put their data on (Google) cloud not on the card.

I could continue for hours about Google bad maneuvers but I've not all that time to spent. I'm just tired (like some of you) of this increasingly pervasive dominance of Google. This is just my point of view.

I posted the petition only to try to do something rather than just stay to watch G coercion passively. Thanks again.

Do what I did when I ran a in home camera repair business through Ebay. I used a P.O. Box. It is that simple. Many businesses do that. For customers that need support I set up a simple website with an Email address.

Google specifically mentions P.O. Boxes as violating their policy on this matter.