Google play developer account termination - life time ban

[ElectricMosquitoBat]

Well.. It happened to me too.
Google terminated my google play developer account that I've opened for my startup due to prior violations.
My best guess is that it happened because the developer I hired has had his account terminated and complied the games I wanted to publish with the same PC he used before.
If you'll allow me to vent for a second... this is simply absurd (and evil).
A life time ban from developing android apps? Even murderers get treated better.

I appealed - some human sounding bot sent me an email rejecting my appeal.
So the past week I've been reading all the posts I could find about this issue and I wanted to create this thread where I share my efforts for overcoming this lifetime ban.

This is what I had done so far:

1. I had my friend open a new google dev account Also admob, firebase etc.
2. He used his credit card and phone number.
3. I bought A new laptop for myself
4. I had installed a new internet provider that is only being used by the new PC
5. I purchased a new phone for testing - also using it only on its own simcard\ the new internet connection
6. I don't use chrome on the new PC at all
7. I plan to use my friends admob and firebase accounts only on the new PC
8. I plan on compiling my app for production on the new PC (I use Unity)



My current concern is that I am using my old PC for development purposes (writing code) and using old admob and firebase accounts for testing (I use unity and build the apks to my own phone)
Do you think google are tracking my code even if I don't sign my app? Should I discard all my code and start over?

I trying to figure out the lengths of which google tracks us (this is crazy btw & feels like a major privacy breach)


Anyway, looking for insights, inputs from anyone who dealt with this issue before.

I'll share my progress (and update the list) here for future reference.

 

[nakamura]

The exact same thing happened to me as well...I was waiting one month for Googles appeal answer..and they just wrote something like "we confirmed there was an association". The main problem is: They can't punish a whole business for the mistakes of an employee, which did "bad" things in the past. Its a fucking joke.

Yes, they are probably tracking the code of your firebase/AdMob account. My recommendation is to use a third party like Appsflyer for analytics and to monetize your apps through mediation (Appodeal for example). The best thing you can do is to avoid Google as much as you can.

They are really evil...and by this I mean: They use all kinda data of you to find out whether you have been terminated before and then they will just terminate you again.

Never login with your new computer to any accounts that got terminated before. Always use a different internet connection (IP). Don't use an old firebase/admob account if possible - dont even integrate them if possible.

I don't think Google is tracking on Unity, but they are certainly tracking on Android Studio.

Normally, you should stay safe with your setup. Best of luck to you.

And btw. don't give Google any reason to suspend/terminate your Admob account. If you are testing new niches, etc. always use a different ad network. Applovin is pretty good and for games Unity ads is also decent.

 

[tousif1988]

I would suggest you learn about virtual machines and install them to use them on this new PC. If it gets banned, at least your PC fingerprint is safe to test for more accounts in the future.

Rest everything looks safe for me so far in your steps.

 

[ElectricMosquitoBat]

Yes, they are probably tracking the code of your firebase/AdMob account. My recommendation is to use a third party like Appsflyer for analytics and to monetize your apps through mediation (Appodeal for example). The best thing you can do is to avoid Google as much as you can.

Even if I only using it for development? - writing code on unity and running it on my phone. Never signed. And I plan of copying the project via USB to the new PC and use the new accounts only.

I would love to not use google services and I'm sure I can manage without firebase. But the fact is, Admob are super important for monetization on mobile games. Top 3 networks for sure.


If you know for a fact that they already marked my code because I used firebase and Admob libs in my project on my old PC then I'll definitely change things up before I continue.

 

[nakamura]

You have to change the code a bit from my experience. Also, from what I saw from 1st August you have to use App Bundle, not .apk anymore for uploading the app to the Play Store. This means it is even more transparent now and they can track it even better. Again, I don't know well for Unity, but I can talk for Android Studio. If you use a new computer and compile the app/game on the new computer, you will probably be fine.

And by the way: If you got your Play account terminated and still got the Admob account running, you have to be careful. In my case, they terminated the Admob account just a few hours (!) before they had to send me the payout. $4k gone suddenly. When I wrote "Google is evil" I really meant it. These guys have absolutely no responsibility, they care about nothing. They will suspend/terminate all of your accounts without any hesitation. No matter if it is justified or not.

 

[terrycody]

Google is evil.

Buy a new laptop and buy a new SIM card for these.

 

[veracasu]

i need US console account

 

[veracasu]

i need US deverlop account

 

[lidorx3]

Google is evil.

Buy a new laptop and buy a new SIM card for these.

Buy new laptop?
Haven't you heard about vmware?