Its a major grey area that most PPD companies are exploiting right now. Taking every word for granted and crafting their policies around it. Its like Google never mentioned about changing the homepage so we might as well do it.
They are just finding a alternative to push their search page. It was a bookmark and icon earlier now a homebase change. On Desktop, its known as BHO (browser hijack Object) which is flagged as malware by almost all AVs. Technically startapp is a malware but they wont call themselves one unless they are being accused of it.
The PPD business got really dirty after the new changes but I guess developers have to just live with it for now.
PS: I have to agree with analysis on Tapcontext, its the most shady android advertising company. I wont be surprised if they are running it from the dentist office basement
According to this sentance:
“user must be able to reverse the change easily, or by uninstalling the app altogether”
I’m not sure if I understand this sentance correct. If only one of reverse ways must work (either user reverse changes or uninstalling app reverse changes) than StartpApp and Appwiz are compliant because user can change homepage by himslef easily. He only need to open browser, go to settings and set new browser homepage.
If this sentance means that both ways need to work than appWiz and StartApp are not compliant, because they don’t return homepage to default state after app is being uninstalled.
Surprisingly, Widdit actually complies with this. Their lock screen goes away when you uninstall the app. Most of other PPD continues to stay.
Also another point not mentioned earlier, All the money generated in the PPD business is from the “Search PPC”. PPC Search feeds is a huge business and if you are working with Google/Yahoo, its a great money making machine. By paying you peanuts for each installs, these companies get their search page set as homepage and then continue to milk the user forever.
Its a bit easy on desktop to see where I am going to but no so easy on mobile where the address bar is tiny and most of the times users don’t look at it much. The style of the page looks similar to Google too, which makes users think they are going to google.com.
This will last for a few months and then whacked just like what happened with companies like babylon etc who lost contracts with Google becoz of their spammy nature of their toolbar business.
PPD is nothing but a mobile version of Toolbars, BHO and all the other shady stuff from the desktop.
The whois address is that of “Whois Registrar Privacy Protection Service, Inc.”, not TapContext. Reading comprehension fail. Now why TapContext is using a privacy service for their website registration is another question.
I had some time over this beautiful weekend to investigate AppWiz. Guess what I found?!
System Interference:
o An app downloaded from Google Play (or its components or derivative elements) must not make changes to the user’s device outside of the app without the user’s knowledge and consent.
o This includes behavior such as replacing or reordering the default presentation of apps, widgets, or the settings on the device. If an app makes such changes with the user’s knowledge and consent,it must be clear to the user which app has made the change and the user must be able to reverse the change easily, or by uninstalling the app altogether.
o Apps and their ads must not add homescreen shortcuts, browser bookmarks, or icons on the user’s device as a service to third parties or for advertising purposes.
The part in red that I high-lighted is the most important part of this sentence. I believe that this is where both StartApp & AppWiz fail horribly. Guess what, It is not easy to remove them and a regular user has no idea who or which app changed it. And uninstalling the app does not help! And even more so, It is said very clearly: Must Not!!! It does not say… “If you have a EULA!!”
This is System Interference.
AppWiz has “some” advantages over StartApp. They at least put a EULA (But has no significance, since Google said clearly “Must Not”)! But on the other hand, when you do open the “search” browser, it opens 42 windows! This is annoying!
Ad Policy
The policy below covers all ads that are implemented in and bundled with apps. These rules are important in maintaining a positive experience for everyone using Android apps from Google Play. Be sure to check back from time to time, as these policies may change.
Ad Walls and Interstitial Ads Interstitial ads may only be displayed inside of the app they came with. Forcing the user to click on ads or submit personal information for advertising purposes in order to fully use an app is prohibited. A prominent and accessible target must be made available to users in any interstitial ad so they may dismiss the ad without penalty or inadvertent click-through.
Additionally, no one yet noticed, but AppWiz is misleading in its advertising. For example the William Hill advert in their App Wall: When you want to “install” William Hill, you get a offer to install AppWiz’s App. This is a pure misleading advertising method which William Hill can sue over as well.
Additionally, this App Wall is not inside the original App. It is in the “new” browser. A clear violation as well.
Impersonation or Deceptive Behavior:
Don’t pretend to be someone else, and don’t represent that your app is authorized by or produced by another company or organization if that is not the case. Products or the ads they contain also must not mimic functionality or warnings from the operating system or other applications. Products must not contain false or misleading information in any content, title, icon, description, or screenshots.Developers must not divert users or provide links to any other site that mimics or passes itself off as another application or service. Apps must not have names or icons that appear confusingly similar to existing products, or to apps supplied with the device (such as Camera, Gallery or Messaging).
Ok, as always, up to you to decide if you want to take the chance of being caught and banned.
I thought homebase is non-compliant but now I think they are fully compliant. @Android_Investigator, thanks a ton.
If we just integrate startapp banners and inters then we are good to go because there is no system interference and no adware flagging by AVG.
Good point, but my experience with out of app ad networks that have in app ads, often their in app ads are problematic. Sexual and misleading ads are often shown.
I’d suggest thoroughly testing the in app ads before going live too.
Homebase is another gray area. But if an Ad Network would like to play the “Gray Area” game, they must be open with developers about the risks involved and follow as closely as possible the guidelines. In this case, I would at least expect StartApp & Appwiz to make removal simple to most users.
I think Mobario is first of all an App like any other app that is looking to be installed by many users. I don’t think we are an Ad Network like AirPush, StartApp, AppWiz and the rest. We distribute our app via SDK and this is the similarity to the Networks mentioned above.
Mobario is an App that enables user to multi-task. That is our main business activity and purpose. Does Mobario have advertisements within its app like every other app? Yes.
Just like any app that pays to be installed, so does Mobario pay developers to distribute us.
This does not make us an Ad Network like AirPush and StartApp.
I see mobario and homebase in same lines but the differentiators is that mobario’s arrow icon gets lot of bad reviews. Just search for your suggested description text on play store and see the comments for the apps that come up for this search. Anyways, as long as mobario is paying good, developers should be happy. If google bans app with mobario, devs have the option to clean it up and re-publish the app but the play store is still flooded with push ads apps so it should be long time till anything happens.
Moral: It all dev’s personal choice after reading the research done by @Android_Investigator
I think the point you’re trying to make is that Mobario has user value compared to networks that just display ads, correct? While that is true for some comparisons, the source of discontent from most users is due to not being able to intuitively get rid of the widget, it has nothing to do with usefulness/uselessness.
I’m still waiting for the day you make it simple for users to disable the widget.
I agree with you. Our product definitely could be improved and is constantly being improved. If you, or other developers, have ideas on how to overcome the “arrow” issue, or to make our product more intuitive, we welcome this feedback.
And I don’t think it is a bad thing to offer developers payment that are willing to advertise Mobario and enjoy the ride as we grow.
I have further investigated StartApp and their Bookmark changes and this is what I found:
StartApp (as you can see below) added at the bottom of the Browser Page the name of the app that made these changes. I can only assume that this addition is to make us developers feel more relaxed about them. I am not relaxed and neither should you be!
These additions DO NOT make them compliant and Google with get you!
The addition of mentioning by which app caused the change still does not make this form of advertising compliant to Google’s new policies.
Let’s see if us developers understand better than the multi-million dollar company that StartApp is (and of course their lawyers!!!):
System Interference:
o An app downloaded from Google Play (or its components or derivative elements) must not make changes to the user’s device outside of the app without the user’s knowledge and consent.
o This includes behavior such as replacing or reordering the default presentation of apps, widgets, or the settings on the device. If an app makes such changes with the user’s knowledge and consent, it must be clear to the user which app has made the change and the user must be able to reverse the change easily, or by uninstalling the app altogether.
o Apps and their ads must not add homescreen shortcuts, browser bookmarks, or icons on the user’s device as a service to third parties or for advertising purposes.
So as you can see, the policy is very clear about what is accepts and does not accept. In regards to most changes, the Policy say, that consent, reversal and being easy to remove is acceptable. About Browser Bookmarks is says MUST NOT!!!
So is StartApp treating the developers as dummies, or do they really think Google won’t ban these apps?!?! But what do they care? They will continue to make money from this change long after the app is banned since the browser will still be StartApp’s.
Check the screenshots for yourself and you decide. Don’t say after that you were not warned…
Policy doesn’t accept adding bookmarks, but it doesn’t say anything about changing home page. StartApp is changing home page link and as far as I know bookmark != home page.
startapp and appwiz provide this homepage ad format. With startapp, we can choose not to use the homepage ad but with appwiz, we are forced to use this homepage ad.
