DroidScript is a coding tool that simplifies the development of mobile applications, is a well-known application, since it is possible to write and edit code, as well as creating applications directly on a smartphone or tablet to run them later, in addition to offering many possibilities.
Its editors believe that it is also an ideal tool for learning JavaScript, as it can literally be encoded from anywhere with DroidScript. But few days ago, in a new instance, DroidScript was identified as a malicious application that executes ad fraud and it was excluded from the PlayStore.
The app, which has already been downloaded over a million times, is used by developers, students, and teachers. David Hurren, founder of Droidscript.org, has filed a complaint with Google to provide more clarity on this, but so far there is no satisfactory answer.
According to David, they have not committed any advertising fraud And there is only one banner in the app to cover the ongoing costs of keeping the business going.
“The Google Play system has declared DroidScript malware and accused us of ad fraud! Needless to say, we are extremely upset and absolutely in awe of this shocking accusation.
As some of you may have noticed, they removed DroidScript from the Play Store about two weeks ago. Since then we have been appealing against our expulsion and have strongly defended our innocence and demanded an explanation, but Google will not listen and Google will not explain what we have done wrong!
“This will affect a lot of people, DroidScript has a user base of over 100.000 worldwide and is used as a learning tool for many teachers, students and hobbyists, as well as professional coders.
"PLEASE help us fight this injustice by spreading the word about our unfair treatment through tweets and by posting links to this article in the technology and news forums." Also reach out to any social media influencer you may know. If we can make enough noise about it, Google might be ashamed of treating us fairly.
" Thanks for your support! «
As On March 31, DroidScript received an email notification that your Google / AdMob publisher account had been disabled for "invalid traffic". For the team, this came out of nowhere and they have no idea why Google's system "suddenly decided they didn't like our app after more than 12 months of being in the ad market with no problem." David assures us that DroidScript only had one banner ad on the main screen, which was reluctantly added to cover development and hosting costs.
To which David replied:
"In your email, Google gives us the option to appeal, but they ask us for a" full analysis of your traffic or other reasons that may have led to incorrect activity on your call. " Well, we had no idea what could have caused this and we couldn't think of anything we could do in our app to fix this problem because Google provides very little information to work in this direction. All Google told us was that we had "invalid traffic" with no more information and worse, a statement that said they weren't even ready to give us more information!
“So we investigated Google's definition of 'invalid traffic' and made our best guess as to what might have caused this problem, and then we filed our appeal. Our main assumption was that one of our users was experimenting with our AdMob ID after extracting it from our APK, but we have no evidence of this and no way to test it. We think we might have the option to change our AdMob ID or get another suggestion from the Adsense team during the appeal process.
Surprisingly, after only 11 minutes, you comment that you received a response in the following rejection email, which was probably just an automatic response:
" Thanks for your call. Thank you for your interest in our program. However, after taking into account the information you have provided us, we have confirmed that we are unable to restore your publisher account. Please note that your account will no longer receive payments. He is not eligible to continue participating in our publisher programs and cannot create new accounts. "
Besides that before the new version was ready, DroidScript took another even more devastating hit from Google Play in which the application is out of the PlayStore:
After a recent review, DroidScript - JavaScript Mobile Coding IDE has been removed from Google Play. Your application has been suspended and removed due to a policy violation. " The reasons given? Advertising fraud.
Source: https://danfabulich.medium.com