Account banned because Widdit or Airpush

Just now Google suspended 3 of my apps and thus banned my account…All these 3 apps used Widdit Homebase and Airpush banners(and were in the top 500)…Here’s the mail with which my apps were suspended:

This is a notification that your application, xxxxxxxxxxxx, with package ID xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, has been removed from the Google Play Store.

REASON FOR REMOVAL: Violation of the dangerous products provision of the Content Policy:

Applications that cause users to download or install applications from unknown sources outside of Google Play are prohibited.
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 the cost of any associated fees (such as chargebacks and payment 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

Why do I think that the problem is with Widdit?..Beacuse in that account i have 12 apps, but only these 3 use Widdit Homebase + Airpush banners…The rest of my apps use Mobario widget + Airpush banners.

Wow sorry man… Looks like Google is really starting to crack down. Sounds like the issue is with Widdit’s SDK. I can’t see banners violating any guidelines. I’ve been a bit apprehensive with integrating with some of these newer networks that popped when Google changed their policy: widdit, mobario, pingjam etc. Contact your AM at widdit?

Thats terrible. However i just checked airpush wall ads… they direct linking straight out of google play. Direct links download starts immediately.

seems crazy, but is it possible that the problem comes from the airpush banners?

Hmmm I am wondering on a note related to this. What if the banner from any Ad company advertises for an app that can be downloaded outside Google play?
Is this a violation. If this is the case then this is reaalllly risky as we don’t know what the ad companies are advertising for

As ive checked my Airpush banners redirect to default market: app.
But most likely it depends of a geo region, so dont know really.
Yes situation is rather dangerous.

Yes . My account banned too and i was using Widdit . I think they are not worth to take risk

hmm, i think yes some advertiser seem to use direct link to download their apk, if i remember correctly some internet browser app seem used to do do this, uc browser if im not mistaken, maybe this is the reason perhaps.

Mh… I don’t think Airpush would allow that outside their universal sdk.

not really sure, maybe, but i have seen this ads whe im using airpush with landing page ads, several month ago before new google policy

Well this is not only about airpush
what about appnext and startapp?
I use them but I worry if their ads direct to non Google play content

Maybe their representative can comfort us with an answer?

I’m relly sorry. I’m also using widdit.
Do you use only widdit or also e.g. airpush?

widdit’s SDK is downloading from widit’s server JAR library after EULA acceptace and in every moment this JAR can be redownloaded. So, maybe Google interprete this as violation?

Hello mate,

The previous Thursday Google suspended one of my apps.

You can find more information in the following thread:

http://forums.makingmoneywithandroid.com/advertising-networks/3406-suspended-app-because-startapp-post-call-manager.html

I was using StartApp + Widdit but Google pointed the problem in the two packages under the StartApp’s Post Call Manager and didn’t mention any problem in Widdit at all.

However since Widdit created the App Score Ranking my earnings decreased twice and I’ve decided to remove them. There was also a huge amount of crashes because of Widdit’s SDK.

Also I’m not very sure how good idea is to use Mobario, for me they aren’t Google Compliant at all.

I’ve used it for a while and my observation is that if the user has more than one of my apps with Mobario all of them start crashing in background.

Also they pay only for one Mobario installation which means if the user has only one of your apps or all of them there is no sense cause you are going to be paid for only one.

I haven’t used Airpush so far but if they are really starting a direct download, not pointing to a Play Store details page they might be the problem.

My current apps use only the StartApp’s exit ads and the search tool.

My suggestion is to reply to that email with a reasonable answer to Google.

I’ve contacted them about the issue, sent them the new compliant SDK which I’ve made, told that the problem is connected with an third party SDK and sit down and wait … one week later they respond to me and unsuspended my app.

Upon further review, we've accepted your appeal and have reinstated your app, based on the condition that you will remove the violating SDK. 

You will need to log back into your Google Play Developer Console to re-publish the application so it is available again on Google Play.

Hope to hear some good new from you in the next week.

Good luck :slight_smile:

Can I touch you? You’re the second person in the world I know that has app reinstated…

It’s better to have your questions/remarks here so that the other developer could read them as well.

What I did was:

  1. I’ve replied them about the problem that I wasn’t a 100% sure which is the exact problem but that I was guessing the problem is in the SDK of the advertising network and that I want to fix it but I wasn’t able to reupload a new SDK since my app has been suspended.

  2. About 8 hours later they’ve replied me with the exact problem which I’ve mentioned in the thread I’ve showed you in my previous post. They also told me that I can upload my app as a brand new compliant app.

  3. I’ve emailed them back with the new compliant .apk file, said that I’m really sorry and and I want to continue developing my current app and the problem started just a few days after I’ve upload this SDK. I’ve ensure my words with some code from the SDK of which was causing the problem.

  4. One week later they’ve unsuspended my app and emailed me that they thanked me about the detailed information about the issue and they’ve accepted my appeal to have my app reinstalled.

I guess if I have wrote them something like:

Oh this is not my problem, it’s their fault … please unsuspend my app …

There wasn’t going to be any respond from them, cause when a friend of mine got banned he just emailed them with a lot of hate :smiley: and didn’t get any reply at all …

@Tamirfa can you explain this?

As author of the thread wrote:
“…Applications that cause users to download or install applications from unknown sources outside of Google Play are prohibited…”

Can’t find where widdit doing this…

Airpush does download a lot of APK into /download folder on your phone. Is it ‘Landing Page Ads’ ? Is it only w AirSDK or also with AirPlay?

How much does revenue goes down if you disable ‘Landing Page Ads’ ?

Is it the same with ‘Dialog Ads’ ?

If so… if I only leave ‘App Wall Ads’ and banners,… will it be 100% sure that no external APKs are downloaded?

I guess Phil.Airpush should answer that questions right now.

I also have not seen anything like it … but I have not seen a airpush banner which makes it…besides, I see something else that unites the three suspended apps except SDK’s… these are my three apps with most downloads, with the most highly rated and first in the ranking of the “Top Free” from all my apps