This is ridiculous, and really a bad news for everyone as there’s no way to talk with an human
Original source is unfortunately on reddit, which I can’t link
I also installed it from that repository, but maybe without a mainstream way to make money it might mean the end of the app… they banned the dev altogether with no way to escalate to a human supervisor…
Hopefully the bot in charge of appeals will reverse this…
I was under the impression that all of the so-called “cleaner” apps were to be avoided. I take this was one of the good ones?
Edit: re-read article, it sounds like it was one of the good ones.
Yes, unfortunately it was probably the only real cleaner on the store. Probably the google bot didn’t like that it was using accessibility controls to delete the cache of all apps (a regular app can’t do this without root, so it was simulating human action to browse app by app and click on “delete cache”)
Further to your edit, there is actually a newer version in development: https://github.com/d4rken-org/sdmaid-se.
The developer goes into the situation in a reddit thread.
I had got the same stalkerware policy. The problem was not the app itself but the description. In my case “friend” and “track” or “monitor” keyword can’t be used together.
If your app description includes “monitor” or “track”, don’t include any person related keywords such as “friend”, “people”, “human”. If not, google considers your app can monitor the somebody’s activity.
Google: Invests billions in AI language models
Also Google: can’t understand words have different meanings
It’s ridiculous how a well standing dev can just have an app removed with no warning or human investigation.
Google is the biggest stalker on the planet. Are they afraid of a little competition?
Stupid take to be honest, real people getting trafficked and stalked, domestic abuse victims being tracked for control by the abuser, and you think that’s fine because google has that data about you even though nobody can use it so why shouldn’t all apps be able to? Go to a women’s shelter, touch grass.
This issue is far more nuanced. No it’s not good Google has that data on you.
No it’s not fair that automatons caused a small developer to have their entire amount destroyed without a proper review.
Both things can be true.
Just purchased the Pro unlocker last sunday, What happen in those cases?
I assume you can still use it as is, you just can’t download it again from play store if you remove it
Thanks, refund already requested but I also installed SD Maid SE from F-Droid in any case.
But the refund will only hurt the dev, not Google
Or Google will keep and pocket all the money from a suspended dev account?
https://github.com/d4rken-org/sdmaid-se
There’s also the new open source version that the developer has been building
