Google Play Publisher account terminated - Any chance to create a new one ?

Hello,

Recently I received an e-mail from google saying that “This is a notification that your Google Play Publisher account has been terminated.” due to Prior violations of the Content Policy and Developer Distribution Agreement.

  1. They have a page where I can Appeal a Google Play developer account termination, but from what I read from the Internet they never change their mind and reinstate the account, so this step is actually a waste of time. I really wonder if, however, someone received a positive answer from this ?

  2. Create a new account
    Again, from what I read on Internet, you cannot create ever again a new accont and publish apps to PlayStore and this scares me a lot… There is no way to post new apps to Google Play after your account has been terminated? You are actually sentenced to life ?

Thanks.

Do you have any idea what you did to get your account terminated?

Not sure… I think they didn’t like the name of my app which contained Facebook term and also I think they consider the screenshots are not original - but I was only using some pictures of my dog and myself - which of course were made with my camera…

Facebook is a trademark word. You are not allow to use that in your app title and description

I was using Facebook api to create some statistics based on user’s friends, so it was normal to use Facebook word. I don’t think this was the main reason for what they terminated my account…they do not give clear feedback with specific guidelines on what the error was…

You mention that you use the word “Facebook” in the app title, right? This is misleading and confusing the user that this app is develop by Facebook. Therefore, Google will not allow even in the app description I guess.

Yes, I was using Facebook word in the app title - “Statistics for Facebook”. That “for” says that is not a Facebook App… Anyway… I do not complete understand google… many months of work wasted… :frowning:

Should have name it “Social Stats” and mentioned facebook in the description. Live and learn I guess.

Bingo…you gotta be very careful these days in the play store

I don’t think mentioning only in the description is guaranteed to be safe. Still, it’s better for sure.

poor indies should use acronyms and let user figure out their meaning.

Should have used FB instead of facebook
Big blue for IBM
MSFT for Microsoft
etc.

There is no way to post new apps to Google Play after your account has been terminated? You are actually sentenced to life ?

Has anyone experienced this before ?

I haven’t experienced it but I’ve read bunch of posts of people who have. There are many precautions you have to make but it still won’t give you 100% of safety. These are methods Google may or maybe may not uses to connect two GP accounts:

  1. IP
  2. Keystore
  3. Testing phone
  4. Computer used for developing (sometimes VPN may help, but sometimes it’s not enough)
  5. E-mails

And remember that google is huge and they are invigilating us every day so it’s not so hard for them. I’ve read stories of people who did what they could to avoid Google eyes but Google caught them anyway.
Imagine situtation that everything is OK but you have logged in on your e-mail at the same time you are logged in to you old gmail. They got you.

In conclusion, It’s possible but it’s hard. Noone really knows how google does it and not everyone is being caught even if they made the same precautions what caught people.

Thanks for your message. Even with all those precautions I do not really like the ideea of living with fear that they could discover that I had another account and close the new one also, even the new one is clean and no mistakes were done with it.
I completely do not understand why they are doing this: to not let you use google play ever again, just because you made some mistakes in the past.

Related to 1 (IP) and 4 (Computer used for developing) isn’t this the same thing ? How can they recognize a computer other way than by its IP address ?

Here’s how to make it 100% safe after you have had your developer account suspended and creating a new one.

  1. Buy a new Laptop/PC or use a VM
  2. Use a VPN
  3. New Keystore
  4. Completely different information when you sign up, including using a different card to purchase the developer account, phone number, address e.t.c.
  5. You’re done

The key is making a new Google account that seems completely legit to Google, you need to be someone else in their eyes, it’s not that hard.

Also, I am testing all my apps on my phone that is linked to my old developer account and it has not been banned, so you don’t need to worry about that.

What does Google track on a PC that a new PC is required? The PC name? Is there even an unique identifier for every PC in the world?

Your browser provides a unique fingerprint… everything from video modes supported, to fonts installed on your machine. It is unique to almost 1 in a (insert very, very large number) if I remember correctly.

And it is really needed to: buy a new PC/use a VM and use a VPN only for this ? Cannot this be resolved more easier by uninstalling and reinstalling the browser or, in the worst case scenario, by reinstalling the Operating System ?

Let me help you with that information… try: https://panopticlick.eff.org/

“Within our dataset of several million visitors, only one in 2,314,508 browsers have the same fingerprint as yours.” - so is not unique. I don’t really think google uses this algorithm to uniquely identify a PC…