Breaking: Google Removes Ad Blocking Apps from Google Play Store; Rooted Users Frown

[dgstorm]

If you are a rooted user, you might just grimace at this news. Apparently, Google just pulled all of the ad blocking apps from the Google Play Store. Apparently, ad blocker programs directly contradict one of Google's policies, but they hadn't really enforced it until now. Here's a quote with the TOS rule followed by Google's email to developers of ad blocking programs,

4.4 Prohibited Actions. You agree that you will not engage in any activity with the Market, including the development or distribution of Products, that interferes with, disrupts, damages, or accesses in an unauthorized manner the devices, servers, networks, or other properties or services of any third party including, but not limited to, Android users, Google or any mobile network operator. You may not use customer information obtained from the Market to sell or distribute Products outside of the Market.

Most of the ad blocking programs have been purged from the Play Store, and the developers were sent emails from Google explaining why. Here's the email statement from Google,

This is a notification that your application, Ad Blocker ★ Root ★, with package ID com.jrummy.apps.ad.blocker, has been removed from the Google Play Store.

REASON FOR REMOVAL: Violation of section 4.4 of the Developer Distribution Agreement.

After a regular review we have determined that your app interferes with or accesses another service or product in an unauthorized manner. This violates the provision of your agreement with Google referred to above.

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

This just happened a short time ago, so we will try to share more details as they emerge.

Thanks for the tip, Mujibar!

 

[Hugh Jass]

I'll be the minority here, but...so what. We all love Google, we all love their free services and guess what, that's how they make money. I'd rather have the occasional annoyance than pay stacks of cash up front.

.02

 

[akhenax]

I'll be the minority here, but...so what. We all love Google, we all love their free services and guess what, that's how they make money. I'd rather have the occasional annoyance than pay stacks of cash up front.

.02

I was going to say the exact same thing.

I wonder if Android firewall apps (D.W. for example) falls into the same category as Ad blockers.

 

[TheOldFart]

I'll be the minority here, but...so what. We all love Google, we all love their free services and guess what, that's how they make money. I'd rather have the occasional annoyance than pay stacks of cash up front.

.02

Agree. The ads don't bother me and I don't even look at them. If it makes an app that I like free then fine. With some apps, I have the option of paying for it to remove the ads and never have. I'll pay to upgrade free apps if I gain function that I will use, but not just to remove ads.

 

[dgstorm]

We tend to agree with all of the above points, but we still thought it was important to share. We can definitely see why some folks prefer ad blockers, but if the ads aren't too annoying and it keeps Google & Android profitable, then it makes good sense for Google to finally take this step. We definitely feel for any developer who works on this type of software, but it's likely a pain that is unavoidable.

 

[xeene]

no big deal. those that are rooted will find ad blocker apps from other sources.

 

[Hugh Jass]

We tend to agree with all of the above points, but we still thought it was important to share. We can definitely see why some folks prefer ad blockers, but if the ads aren't too annoying and it keeps Google & Android profitable, then it makes good sense for Google to finally take this step. We definitely feel for any developer who works on this type of software, but it's likely a pain that is unavoidable.

Oh I wasn't digging at you, just throwing my opinion out there.

 

[liftedplane]

no big deal. those that are rooted will find ad blocker apps from other sources.

whatever, I didn't even know adblock was on the play store until a few months ago.

and I stopped using it... big deal, to bad google did this though

 

[tgyberg]

no big deal. those that are rooted will find ad blocker apps from other sources.

This ftw :biggrin:

 

[dgstorm]

Oh I wasn't digging at you, just throwing my opinion out there.

I know you weren't digging. I just thought I would add to the discussion a bit.

 

[zomnomnombie]

I'll be the minority here, but...so what. We all love Google, we all love their free services and guess what, that's how they make money. I'd rather have the occasional annoyance than pay stacks of cash up front.

.02

This.

 

[johnomaz]

If you are a rooted user, you know how to side load apps. All this does is stop people from getting it from the Play Store. Plus, a lot of roms have ad blocked baked in so it doesn't matter. Also, if you already have the app on your device, you should be able to download it from the playstore in the future, you just can't search for them if I'm not mistaken.

 

[CJM]

I know you weren't digging. I just thought I would add to the discussion a bit.

:whore:

 

[cybertec69]

I'll be the minority here, but...so what. We all love Google, we all love their free services and guess what, that's how they make money. I'd rather have the occasional annoyance than pay stacks of cash up front.

.02

Good for you, but myself a rooted/unlocked S3 owner that uses Adaway app, I am extremely disappointed, once you go add free you can never go back, LOL.

 

[xsylus]

Not sure if this is related but I noticed Speed Booster is gone too. I still have it on my phone but I clicked to rate it and the play store says it can't find it.

More on topic: anyone who already has an ad blocking app on their device isn't going to be all that affected by this change and I'm sure the apk files will end up on back channel websites.

I don't mind ads in apps if they're non intrusive and the ad content is not objectionable. But if an app has ads that popup or temporarily limit the usage of the app (like a camera app I tried) then I'll just uninstall it. There has to be a balance.

On the flip side I think we should still be able to block ads from webpages because they tend to slow down browsing the web especially for those of us still using 3G.