Ad policy changes - 28 Mar 2014

Android Android Development
1

Hello Google Play Developer,

We are constantly striving to make Google Play a great community for developers and consumers. This requires us to update our policies in accordance with current practices as the ecosystem evolves. This email is to notify you that we’ve made some changes to our policies which are highlighted below.

We’ve updated our content policies to further clarify our stance on sexually explicit material and provide a better experience for our users, including minors

We’re introducing the App Promotion policy, which provides guidance on what app promotion tactics are disallowed when promoting your app on Play

We’ve introduced a provision that requires you to clearly disclose when an advertised feature in your app’s description requires in-app payment

We’ve clarified the System Interference policy to prohibit any browser modifications on behalf of third-parties or advertisements

We’ve re-emphasized in the Ads Policy that all advertising behavior must be properly attributed to, or clearly presented in context with the app it came along with

We’ve also updated the Spyware section of our Policy Guidelines Help Site to address surveillance or tracking apps. Please take a look at the Google Play Developer Program Policy to see all the changes and make sure your app complies with our updated policies.

Any new apps or app updates published after this notification will be immediately subject to the latest version of the Program Policy. If you find any existing apps in your catalog that don’t comply, we ask you to unpublish the app, or fix and republish the app within 15 calendar days of receiving this email. After this period, existing apps discovered to be in violation may be subject to warning or removal from Google Play.

Regards,
Google Play Team

http://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy.html

2

I havent checked my email yet.

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@startapp what can you say about these policy changes. Now your sdk that changes bookmarks clearly violates their new policies, please release a new sdk that is fully compliant so we won’t be forced to removed your sdk from our apps.

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Clearly end of startapp’s existing search sdk, If they can remove the browser homepage thing and keep search box slider then it will become compliant.
Guys who have gone through the policy in detail can pls. answer my following questions:

  1. Do we need to tell in play store description about the in-app purchases for ad removal?
  2. Do we need to tell in play store description about the places where ad will be shown?
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Ok, I wasn’t clear enough, what I meant was release an updated sdk that’s still PPD but google compliant. I know in-app sdk is compliant but earnings would be much less without the searchbox sdk that changes bookmarks which is PPD.

6

Hello,

A little question, In my app i encourage users to use SoundCloud, cause in my app they are able to export their sound.
Can i create an ads that redirect users to google play to download SoundCloud? ?

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Thanks for giving this information.

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“Apps that contain or promote pornography are prohibited; this includes sexually explicit or erotic content, icons, titles, or descriptions”

What’ exactly is and erotic title or description?

Once again they’re being very vague.

Would be nice if they could provide a list of banned words.