Today my app was Flagged n it says
“We have determined that your app uses a library or SDK (com.tapjoy) that is in violation of the Developer Programme Policy. Please note that beginning 1 Aug 2014 the Developer Programme Policy requires all updates and new apps uploaded to be compliant with the advertising ID provision of the Developer Programme Policy. Apps in violation may be subject to permanent removal from the Store. Learn more.”
So I Request you All to Share Information what you know about Adversting ID.So that other peoples app won’t get Flagged.
Hello @Gamerstudios just to explain in brief. Advertising Id must be used by any library (SDK) within your app that wants to deliver interest based ads. What does that mean? If a networks tracks a user and use this information to retarget him later based on this information it must use the advertising Id. In the old dates networks were using Android ID or Mac address to track the users. However there was not an easy way out for a user to opt-out. With Advertising Id user can easily go at any time to Google Settings in Ads sections and opt-out. Google has transferred the control to the user. It is the exact same concept with cookies on the web. Advertising Id is the mobile cookie! You can read more info about Advertising Id here. Hope that helps. Just my 2 cents in the story
I have this flag too in serveral apps, what I don’t understand is that they said that this only will affect new/updated apps since 1 August 2014, so why I have apps flagged that weren’t updated since last year or so? Any clue? Should I updated?
They’ve started using bots that target ANY apps that haven’t updated SDKs yet.
As we all know, this DOES NOT match the new rule that they added to their programme policy - specifically that only new and newly updated apps must follow the policy update regarding Advertising ID.
With that said, these “flags” don’t seem to actually be official warnings, since no companion e-mails are being sent alongside them.
They are pretty much just targeted reminders, unless your app(s) has actually been updated since August 1st or is new.
In any case, its probably a good idea to just update these SDKs (and you may aswell updated any 3rd party content while you’re at it!). Don’t give Google extra reasons to ban your apps…
So what exactly needs to be done cause I still don’t really understand. For example, I don’t use admob but use chartboost, so what exactly do I need to updated?
Admob required migration to use Google Play services, instead of a standalone SDK. All other networks just released a new SDK sometime before Google enforced the new policy.
Some networks required more than just an SDK update, but I can’t say specifically. I know that mobileCore, StartApp and AppNext just released new SDKs with no code changes.
Thanks for the info. Well I updated my startapp sdks and checked the chartboost log and it seems they updated this since March so hopefully I’ll be OK.
Generally speaking guys you SHOULD always update your apps with the latest apks from ad networks. As the marketplace evolves so the networks do too. Speaking as a man from inside changes occur constantly in a monetization SDK either to be compliant with Google policies, or to follow latest trends in UI or even to increase your conversion rates. So please track when your networks submit updates and consider them for your new updates§!
This is why I don’t like ads - I spent last two weeks updating my apps because of some SDK updates (ad networks, IAP etc. and adding some new features and updating old projects to new requirements) and stuff like that meaning I was updating old games instead of creating new ones. And before I was done there were already some updates I would have to incorporate…
Premium apps without ads are much easier to maintain - if only people bought them more often our lives would be easier… And to ad networks: stop updating so often, I prefer networks that only update when it’s necessary (because of policy changes).
