Everyone’s saying how great Airpush is and what stellar results it achieves. So I thought let’s give it a try - downloaded the SDK, integrated. It displays opt-in screen. Well, first thing it says my app will push notification ads and install icons on the screen. Well, it won’t. Hell no - this smart wall is the only unit I could be interested in. OK, but that’s not the worst thing. I kept reading it and found this:
When you click on advertisements delivered by Airpush, you will typically be directed to a third party’s web page and we may pass certain of your information to the third parties operating or hosting these pages, including your email address, phone number and a list of the apps on your device.
Phone number? e-mail address? when clicking the ad? Whoa - now I understand how it can achieve $10+ eCPM. It’s not the ads - it’s the personal information that is carried with it to any spammer network Airpush wishes.
No way I’m going to add that to my privacy policy. Even if most users don’t read a thing and accept everything and no one would complain it would be just plain wrong.
OK, now awaiting attack of the spam-front about 'user accepted it, he’s a stupid jerk, it’s his fault"
Not every network require appropriate permissions. And most that do claim (whether to believe it or not is a different matter) that READ_PHONE_STATE is used only to get an unique phone identifier and not the phone number.
Just grepped a couple of SDK’s I’ve ever tried for “getLine1Number” which is a function called to obtain phone number:
Found it in: Airpush and Madvertise
Not found in: Admob, Inneractive, Mobfox (which require this permission), TapJoy, AppBrain, Leadbolt, Millennial Media
There is a difference others guarantee that they will not forward phone number to third parties but in case of AirPush they do not guarantee, actually they go step forward and telling you that they will probably forward that info to third parties. I do not like this opt-in too, what if you want to use only a wall and not icon ads?
AirPush have very bad reputation and I hope that other networks, less offensive, copy this app wall model.
And probably they won’t be able to provide this level of revenue without selling end user’s personal information. Ah, no free lunch for those who want to treat their users with respect they deserve
@Max I guess that you are right about re-selling personal info, it is very hard to get >10 dollars eCPM with out this method, my the best bet still stay TapJoy and probably some full page ad network.
I do not think so but you need to think about your reputation as developer, sure if someone shooting on quick revenue than I guess that does not matter what he/she implements in app.
Wow, they give the phone number to a third-party ? This should be punished. Period. One thing is using notification ads (which I think are fine) but this is just plain intolerable.
Even if a privacy policy will be required, most developers will just copy and paste the first policy they can find on the internet. No offence to developers, but a lot of Android app developers are teenagers or people that are new to software development.
Now there’s nothing wrong with that, a lot of these developers make better apps than big software companies. But a big group is just blinded by the idea of making money. Just look at how many apps use artwork or sounds that they do not have permission to use. Or making apps with trademark names. Most of the time they do not even know they are doing something wrong.
As long as Google does not take actions towards these developers, they will keep on using anything to make a profit.
This is a very interesting find, because I encountered it the other day but didn’t understand what was happening. I clicked a SmartWall ad and my e-mail address was already populated on the advertiser’s landing page, rather than me having to enter it. However, I still would have needed to hit ‘Submit’ to complete the offer which I did not do.
It seems to me like a convenience feature for the user, and I have seen the exact same thing happening with PontiFlex’s offer wall (which is awesome btw but low fill rate outside of U.S) and also Moolah’s. In all the implementations I have seen, even though the email address / phone number is passed to the advertiser’s page, the user still needs to hit Submit.
I think some of you on the board are envisioning a scenario where the information just silently gets passed to the advertiser, and that isn’t the case from what I have seen.
If any of you are very heavy with U.S traffic I recommend that you try PontiFlex’s offerwall if you are okay with that mechanism, because it performs very well, actually better than Airpush SmartWall for U.S traffic only though.
Pre-filling form’s field would be OK and I wouldn’t mind that at all assuming user have to push a confirmation button. But the opt-in dialog suggests (and gives possibility for) something completely different.
Just so you guys know, SendDroid does neither needs nor shares any of your personal information. Just thought I’d throw it out there since it was not included in then names of networks that did or didn’t do it.
Max, I confirmed with my AM at Airpush that advertisers can only pre-fill forms and are required to have the user submit the page. This is exactly what I experienced, and it’s what I have seen with Pontiflex and I believe Moolah (not 100% sure about Moolah though). IMO it’s a great convenience for the user…who likes typing in their entire email address into a form on your phone ??
But still this information is being sent to 3rd parties. The fact that they promise (to Airpush) not to do anything with this information doesn’t change anything.
Well, the opt-in says it can send so we have to assume it does. I wouldn’t consider integrating it unless they officially state they don’t send it without explicit user’s permission (each time it is being sent).