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Google Store Sends User Information To App Developers
Several readers have passed on news of a privacy hole in the Google app store. Reader Strudelkugel writes with the news.com.au version, excerpting: "Every time you purchase an app on Google Play, your name, address and email is passed on to the developer, it has been revealed today. The 'flaw' — which appears to be by design — was discovered this morning by Sydney app developer Dan Nolan who told news.com.au that he was uncomfortable being the custodian of this information and that there was no reason for any developer to have this information at their finger tips."
Today I learned that app developers don't deserve to be treated like real merchants
It did seem a little... more information than I really needed, yes.
I sort of assumed everyone knew, because when has Google ever cared about privacy?
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
literally every single person that's ever sold at least one app on the app store since the beginning of the app store has "discovered" this
From the article:
Google has not responded to news.com.au's request for comment.
UPDATE: This story has been amended at the request of Google.
So has Google responded or not?
Alright, so the Play Store should probably tell you that your personal information is about to be given to whomever you purchase an app from, but seriously, this is already true for every Paypal or credit card purchase you've ever made too.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
No reason of course unless you want to be able to verify the app purchase before providing support.
Many people sent up junk email accounts specifically for using with things like app stores - you cannot rely on the email the user bought under being the one they would use for support.
But really the concept of checking is outmoded - real customer service is helping whoever asks, however they came by the app. If you have an overload of customer support then it probably means you need better app design, not more ways to put gates up in front of people using your app that need help.
As an iOS developer I've never been bothered by not being given customer contact info from Apple, because if they like your app enough they will give that information freely. You just have to provide some means to collect it.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The article states several times that this applies to paid-for apps, but what about free ones?
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Google logs the private search data of billions of people across the world, and voluntarily pipes all of it to various 3 letter agencies in the U.S. ---- Google has no understanding of what privacy is, had not had an understanding of what privacy is, and will likely never have an understanding of what privacy. ----- Google is a spying machine disguised as a useful search engine. Period. ----- None of what they are doing on their app store is thus terribly surprising. Google suxxors at protecting your privacy. Something we all have to live with (... and the reason I personally don't use Google's services anymore).
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
Real merchants don't "deserve" your personal details any more or less than appstore merchants. There may be a need to take your address for shipment, and in that case a phone number, email adress, or even additional shipment instructions may be useful. But they ought not be required without good reason.
Note that credit cards muddle the picture by virtue of being a credit facility: You haven't actually paid yet so you are in debt and those obligations add identification requirements. Though strictly speaking all the merchant is supposed to do is pass it on to the credit facility for turning into money, and passing it in the clear is rather outdated, and well-known to be dangerous. Without credit as in payment by cash there and then, much of the need to identify you personally goes away.
That this information is useful for profiling and all sorts of marketeering and so it's nice to gather, well, plenty furrin places you're not even allowed to do that. I'd say the practice to pass on information that really isn't needed is a dangerous habit that needs reconsideration.
N'mind that it may possibly be useful to send emails in case of updates or whatnot. Passing that information automatically without need is a flaw, yes. Even if done by design.
http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/ I just keep re-rolling until I get a zip code that's close.
Then use that information to fill out forms and accounts; keeping it on file for future reference.
My security doesn't stop at a HOSTS file and malware protection. But I use Gmail for
all of these accounts so it's not perfect.
What I think many commentators are missing is that Google, as the actual seller of the app, is like a retail outlet. The app developer is selling through Google, not directly.
What Google is doing here is like Best Buy sending my information to Sony if I purchase a Sony camera at Best Buy.
I hope they stop this leaky, unpredictable practice. It's counter-intuitive to what the buyer rightfully expects, which is that their information is exposed to the primary seller only (Google) and not secondary providers like the app developers.
I'm not sure I see a problem here. The seller is told who the buyer is. That's reasonable enough. It also keeps Google honest with respect to sellers - you can have some people make test buys and make sure that Google pays you for them.
I'm generally critical of Google's non-approach to non-privacy, but here, there's a real transaction, with money.
Wait, this is new? I released my first paid app in November, and the only information you get is email, zipcode/city and name. I've been using the zipcode information to put pins in a map to see everywhere in the world I've sold to, heh.
review
i don't tolerate any bad reviews on my apps. i either kill them myself or take a hit out
I understand that it might not be immediately obvious, but I don't think this was a secret by any means. It uses Google Wallet for payments, which is essentially Google's answer to PayPal, and this gives your contact details to the person you are buying from. The first time I bought anything from Google Marketplace, I received a confirmation email from the developers themselves, it never occurred to me that people might not realise this.
I can see both sides of the argument. I've seen what happens when developers don't have this information, such as with Apple's App Store - it's very frustrating as you want to reach out to customers that have had problems and posted negative reviews to try to solve their problem and prevent it from happening to anybody else, but you've got no way of contacting them.
On the other hand, I've been spammed by people I've bought goods from through Amazon's Marketplace, so I'm not keen on that happening again. The ideal solution would be for Google to provide a forwarding, anonymised email address to the developers, like Facebook do with Facebook app developers.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
Gotta love the Google hate....
http://www.larrysworld.com/2011/02/21/publishers-worry-about-apples-subscription-service/
This has been this way a long time. And even "larry's world" gets the 3rd party amazon stuff not quite right - your details do get passed along if Amazon does not handle the fulfilment.
You do get name, city name, and zip... you do not get an address. That's simply false.
Imagine if you weren't allowed to use roads because a bus company complained about your driving 3 times. --skunkpussy
Every app developer purchases traffic via banners / text links to promote their app. Without this campaign data being passed along there is no way to tell the conversion ratios! Very very serious
I am a Google Play developer. I have noticed that I get the names, email, and location of the purchases. This does not include the address though. Only the town, zip, and country. I have looked back at old records and see the email address listed in the purchase records, but I seem to recall this being obscured previously. Unless I am mistaken in some way, it used to give a long apparently randomly created email address for each purchase. I had assumed that this would forward or link to their real email address through Google's records of the purchase, but it looks like they did away with that and now just have your email address listed in the purchase record.
Personally, I find no reason to have the email address. There is nothing I would want to contact them about. But the sales are in a more general form. It's actually Google Checkout that does the sales for the Google Play store. You could sell knitted sweaters through your Google Checkout account and the shipping and delivering and returns are all a part of the processing procedures. When someone cancels a Play purchase, the entry has a notice to me that I should not ship the product to them. This is even though it is an Android App that Google itself handles all the delivery of. So I can see why some contact with the buyer might be necessary in some cases, but not with a typical Play store purchase.
<Rant Begin> The people I would really like to be able to contact would be the ones who leave stupid reviews. "One Star - It really needs so and so feature!" Hey dumbass - it has that feature! Of course I am much more polite with my real communications to bug reports and such, but it amazes me how many people don't even pay attention to the hints, instructions, and preferences that I have given to make sure they see what they can change. <Rant End>
-- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
The app is just a vehicle to generate marketing leads, that is where the gold is.
Rick B.
I have free apps in the Play store - and have *never* recieved customer information about those apps. Never. The customer info is only for paid apps, to facilitate tax collection.
I am not going to argue that this doesn't provide some legitimate value, for legitimate trustworthy developers. The problem is we can't assume that every developer is honest and trustworthy.
It is painfully obvious that there are applications out there that are trying to trick users into downloading a crap app. Some apps will have the exact same name as an iOS only app, with screenshots from the original app, but with fine print that it is only a "fan app".
I don't know what their intention is, but now that I know what their intentions is, but now that I know that develops can collect this kind of information, I wouldn't be surprised if their existed shady developers were releasing apps as honeypots to collect personal information.
There is no reason why Google could not create some kind of API to hash users so that a developer could only e-mail users by going through Google, and that abuses of contact information could be traced to a developer for disciplinary action.
"Google Store Sends User Information *That They Think They Have* To App Developers"
"...*the fake name, fake address and throwaway email that you registered with Google Wallet* is passed on to the developer..."
There. FTFY.
Why would anyone give the big G their real name? Learn how to use Visa or MC gift cards, man!
"I love animals! Some are cute, others are tasty, what's not to like?" - Betsy Schroeder, Jeopardy contestant
Is it weird that I think this is a good thing for app developers? Along with some apps on the various app stores, I have an online store (PayPal, barf) that I use for selling video plug-ins. Since it's "my" store, I get all customer information every time there's a purchase. As a result, whenever I have updates or new products I like to be able to send out an email to all my customers with a promo code and a quick "Thanks for buying from me in the past, as a reward here's a discount code for some new stuff!"
I get a lot of new sales that way.
With these app stores, I don't have a lot of info about my customer other than the poorly managed review process, and in the case of Apple, the remarkably shitty "sales manager" window.
I like knowing who my customers are, it helps me be a better vendor. Of course, I'm not an evil email harvester or spambot.
It's not like Android users pay for software anyway.
If I want support from an app developer, they'll be more likely to listen to me if they know I'm a paid customer. (For those who don't want support, it would be nice for Google to offer anonymous purchases, though.)
dammit. I downloaded an app from the 'play' store and soon I got 'auto added' to some stupid mailing list. of course, i never asked to join the list and it was not easy to get off of it, either.
when I yelled (using some colorful language) at the so-called owner of the app, he acted all surprised that I was pissed off at his behavior.
had to add a mail filter to stop his absurd 'blog' comments that he insisted we all receive.
google, you have fucked me again. I knew you were no trustworthy but this really takes the cake.
this spamming behavior really need to hit the major news so that everyone knows who and what they are dealing with when they 'download an app' and think that some discretion is preserved.
I hope, someday, google crosses someone with some serious legal power. its just a matter of time before they fuck with the wrong powerful person. and I will cheer the day that google gets punished for their irresponsible behavior.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
The developer sells you a license i.e. the right to use his software. He has every right to know who is licensed to use the software and who's not.