Appeal Rejected: Google Removed (ad-free) Mommy Saver Plus for "Deceptive Ads"

(UPDATE: Mommy Saver Plus has been reinstated!  This after I posted this on HN, tweeted at them, and sent a slightly-too-passive-aggressive email response.)

Yesterday, the Google Play team mistook Mommy Saver Plus (the paid version of Mommy Saver) for another app and removed it from the app store.

I filled in the little textbox to make an appeal.

Today, I got an update:

Clearly, the reviewer either did not read or did not understand my two-sentence appeal.

It's possible my words weren't clear enough and the reviewer didn't have enough time to understand them.  I wrote something very close to "Mommy Saver Plus was removed for 'deceptive ads' which is a little silly because there is no ads in the app.  The attached screenshots have nothing to do with Mommy Saver Plus."

This part scares me:

"... repeated violations can result in the suspension of this app or your Google Play Developer account."

I don't dare re-submit the same app, at least not with the same package.  I'll probably tweak it a little bit and then re-submit it under a different package... after I back up all my google data, just in case.

Until then, the links to upgrade from the free version will continue to 404.

Google Removed (ad-free) Mommy Saver Plus for "Deceptive Ads"

I got an email from Google saying they removed Mommy Saver Plus (the paid version of Mommy Saver) for "deceptive ads".  This is strange because Mommy Saver Plus has no ads.

Looking closer, it seems like they mistook another app for mine (edit 2019-03-26: I looked up that app and it has been removed as well).  Mommy Saver Plus is mostly black and white with touches of color.  This app is very colorful (app names and email address covered so I don't cause problems for another developer):

Mommy Saver Plus looks more like this:

Hopefully this will just get fixed and go away in the next couple days and I'll have a good laugh about it later.

To Google's credit, the email says I can "remove any ads that violate the Deceptive Ads policy" and re-submit the app.  They apparently also have an appeals process (I've already submitted the appeal 2019-03-25).

I'm not familiar with Google's ad policies, but it's a little strange that they would remove this app anyway.

I'm also a little worried because I've read on HN horror stories about Google doing things like this or worse.  I'm nervous about re-submitting until I see the result of the appeal.  Mommy Saver Plus doesn't make much money, but I want to publish a new app in a few months and don't want to have problems with that.  And I definitely don't want problems with my Google account.

If anyone knows anything useful, I'd appreciate it.  Googling for "play store removed mistake" doesn't yield much useful results.

New App Coming Soon

Another app coming soon.  A semi-automated, to-do-list style expense & receipt tracker.  It's intended for people for self-employed/small-business-owners who want to keep very tight tabs on their expenses and receipts but with doing as little work as possible.

Like Mommy Saver, I'm making this to my personal tastes and needs.  But I'm going to actually try to make money on this one as well.

Coming Soon page:

tightership.com

More details later...

MommySaver Privacy Policy

Purple Leaf Software LLC

Quick Summary The MommySaver app does not collect any personal information from users of any version of the MommySaver app.  The rest of this notice is a meaningless formality.

If you have any questions or suggestions, email me directly: jlakey@purpleleafsoftware.com.

Type of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) Collected None. The MommySaver app does not collect any PII.

How PII Is Collected It's not. I don't collect it.

How PII Is Used It's not. I don't collect it.

Information Sharing With Third Parties There are none. I don't collect personal information so there's nothing to share with third parties.

Parent's Right In the US, under Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), I may not require a child to disclose more information than is reasonably necessary to participate in an activity as a condition of participation. Since I don't collect information, this is not a problem. Also under COPPA, the parent can review the child's personal information, ask to have it deleted and refuse to allow any further collection or use of the child's information. If you want to review the information I don't collect, email me, and I'll send you an empty email because there is no information. If you wish to delete the information, you can also email me and I'll delete all the information that my app has collected (which is none). If you want me to stop collecting information, you can also email me and I will stop collecting information that I don't collect. Also under COPPA, the parent has the option to agree to the collection and use of the child's information without consenting to the disclosure of the information to third parties. If you wish to agree to collection of information without sharing, you can email me and I won't share the information that I'm not collecting to third parties that don't exist.

Parental Consent If I collected information, I would need to deliver this directly and require parental consent. But I don't collect information, so I don't need to do that.

Changes to This Policy If there's any changes, I'll let you know with a direct notice.

Revoking Consent You may revoke your consent to collect your child's information (which you won't give anyway because you'd have to email me and it won't make any difference). You may also ask that any information (which doesn't exist) be deleted. I'll delete it if you send me an email, which means I'll do nothing because there is no information.

Questions If you wish to know which kinds of information I collect, you can email me. I'll send you an email to remind you that I don't collect information, as I've said throughout this notice.

Contact Information Jeremy Lakey 801 987 8502 1314 W 1480 N, Orem, UT 84057 jlakey@purpleleafsoftware.com.

Mommy Saver Support

For any issues related to the Mommy Saver app, please write an email directly to the developer at jlakey@purpleleafsoftware.com.  Average email response time is about an hour.

If you are reporting a bug, please mention whether you are using MommySaver on iOS or on Android and which device you are using.

MommySaver coming to iOS

MommySaver, the Android app to calm and delight babies with black and white visual stimulation,  is finally coming to iOS if it's approved by Apple.

The tenative release date is May 15th.