Newly Submitted StartApp App gets banned

Monetizing, Advertising & Marketing Advertising Networks
1

This is a notification that your application, Crayon Hangman - Word Fun, with package ID com.crayonhangman.egacyapp, has been removed from the Google Play Store.

REASON FOR REMOVAL: Violation of the Ad Policy:

Interstitial ads may only be displayed inside of the app they came with. 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.
Please refer to the ad walls policy help article for more information.

All violations are tracked. Serious or repeated violations of any nature will result in the termination of your developer account, and investigation and possible termination of related Google accounts. If your account is terminated, payments will cease and Google may recover the proceeds of any past sales and/or the cost of any associated fees (such as chargebacks and transaction fees) from you.

If your developer account is still in good standing, you may revise and upload a new instance of the application that is compliant with the developer terms. Before uploading any new applications, please review the Developer Distribution Agreement and Content Policy.

If you feel we have made this determination in error, you can visit this Google Play Help Center article for additional information regarding this removal.

The Google Play Team

I don’t really know what could have caused it but I think the only mistake I may have done is include Interstitial Activities in the Android Manifest even though my app only uses banner ads. Could that have caused this problem or is this some kind of fault in StartApp? Either way I’ll past the snippet:

<activity android:name="com.startapp.android.publish.list3d.List3DActivity"
          android:taskAffinity="com.crayonhangman.egacyapp.AppWall"
          android:theme="@android:style/Theme" />

<activity android:name="com.startapp.android.publish.AppWallActivity"
          android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Translucent"
          android:taskAffinity="com.crayonhangman.egacyapp.AppWall"            
          android:configChanges="orientation|keyboardHidden" />

Eagerly waiting for replies…

2

Ad network is one thing and implementation is other. Your implementation was wrong. Better change the title of this post and remove startapp from it.

3

I’ll have you know I mentioned “StartApp” in the title so that developers that used StartApp could assist me. Secondly, in my post I have included that the problem could have been caused by me. This is my first time that I am implementing Ads into my app so some kind of solution would be beneficial?

4

If you only used banners, how you violated their policies? in the e-mail they talk about interstitial. And you can also get banned, while using admob, if you show the interstitial outside the app

5

Very strange, but at least you got a reason.
I use startapp as well but it simply stated: REASON FOR REMOVAL: Violation of the System Interference provision of the Content Policy., with no further explanation. Upon appeal they changed it to REASON FOR REMOVAL: Violation of the Ad Policy. with no further information.

I find it hard to believe that simply having the interstitial activity stated in your manifest is enough grounds for suspension, but there doesn’t seem to be anything else that could be in violation.

I’m guessing they are now just banning everyone who uses a specific startapp sdk version.

6

maybe it has to do with their return ad which is active by default

7

Which sdk version are you using?

8

I was using the latest 2.4.9.1,
I posted the scenario here: http://forums.makingmoneywithandroid.com/advertising-networks/18277-%5Bstartapp%5D-suspended-due-startapp-interstitials.html#post97152

I don’t think it is just the sdk because they did eventually tell me this:
REASON FOR REMOVAL: Violation of the Ad Policy.

After a regular review, we have determined that your app contains ads that impersonate system notifications, warnings, or functionality. This violates the Ad Policy. Please refer to the ad context policy help article for more information.

but it did seem to get suspended as soon as I uploaded the apk containing the latest sdk, but who knows how the bots work…
In any case, if you are not using the latest, you may want to hold off on updating until they sort it out.

9

To be honest, I NEVER update to the latest sdk of any ad network right away, I always wait to see what other people say and in this case it happened to you. I would recommend removing the exit ad,even if you feel it’s in compliance. Some people get away with it and some people don’t:confused:

10

This is why I use adnetworks that only require internet only permission like mobilecore and heyzap, when user downloads an app no permissions prompt up so easy installs and no data collection whatsoever