How to dispute Google Play Content Rating Change? - google-play-services

Recently, I received a mail from Google Play Support Team:
This is a notification that the minimum content level of your application, x, with package ID y, has been changed to Medium Maturity (3) by the Google Play Team after a regular review.
REASON FOR CONTENT LEVEL CHANGE: Violation of the Google Play content rating policy.
After a regular review, we have determined that your app includes gambling themes. The content rating of your app has been changed to reflect this content.
Please be advised that additional content rating modifications by the Google Play Team may result in administrative action, up to and including removal of subsequent applications in violation.
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.
We appreciate your contributions towards ensuring an accurate content rating experience for Google Play users.
The Google Play Team
The problem with this mail is that my app is a fitness app where no currency transaction, virtual or real, takes place.
I would like to dispute the unfair content rating given to my app and the unfair threat given to me.
Could any one please help me find an appropriate forum or email where I can forward my dispute?
Thank you!

This is the link I used for a similar email :
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/2992033?hl=en&ref_topic=3453554
I have not yet gotten an answer.

Related

How can I acquire data from social media to analyze it using machine learning?

I have a project where I'm required to predict future user location so that we can provide him with location specific services as well as collect data from his device that would be used to provide a service for another user etc...
I have already developed an android app that collects some data but as social media is the richest in terms of information, I would like to make use of that. For example, if the user checks in in a restaurant and gives it a good review (on fb for example) then he is likely to go back there. Or if he tweets a negative tweet about a place then he is unlikely to go back there... these are just examples I thought of.
So my main issue is: how do I even get access to that information? I mean it's not like the user is going to send me a copy of every social media activity they have so how do I get it and is that even possible? Because I know fb, twitter and other social medias have security policies so I initially thought it couldn't be done and that only facebook gets access to their users' information to predict their likes and dislikes and show them adds and sponsored posts accordingly but when googling it, I found a lot of tools that claim to be able to provide that sort of data. How did they even acquire it and is it possible for me to do the same?
Facebook, Twitter, etc. have well-documented APIs that may or may not allow you to access the data.
For the APIs, see the official documentation of each, because anything I write here will likely be outdated in a year or two, as their APIs change.
Don't rely on web scraping. The web sites change design more often than the API, and you will likely violate the terms-of-service.

instagram retrieve hashtag images - update June 1

I am aware of the update to Instagram apis. I have read through the documentation regarding fetching hashtag images. I'm confused regarding 2 points -
They have a section "Endpoints", which gives the url for fetching images using tags - https://api.instagram.com/v1/tags/{tag-name}?access_token=ACCESS-TOKEN
At the same time, when i try to submit for review (under Permissions Review section), in order to get access token, i get this message -
"This use case is not supported. We do not approve the public_content permission for one-off projects such as displaying hashtag based content on your website. As alternative solution, you can show your own Instagram content, or find a company that offers this type of service (content discover, moderation, and display)."
The 2nd point makes me believe that Instagram has stopped sharing hashtag images to apis, at the same time i can find a lot of widgets still fetching hashtag images. How do they do that? Can anyone point me in the right direction?
The 2nd point makes me believe that Instagram has stopped sharing hashtag images to apis,
Correct. Instagram has made business decision to block most developers from accessing this content.
at the same time i can find a lot of widgets still fetching hashtag images.
This doesn't tell you much. They might have gotten their app approved for other purposes. Also it appears that Instagram has made some exceptions for big apps (like Tinder). Life is not fair.
How do they do that? Can anyone point me in the right direction?
You probably cannot. 99% of the use cases are not allowed and so they will reject your app if you try to submit it. Read this short article about what you can and cannot do with the new Instagram API
The other widgets you are talking about probably have presented Instagram with one of the valid use cases to fetch the data. They are able to get only the public content. This new restriction is probably a business decision. If you would still want to get the data you are looking for, you shopuld possibly go to a third party data provider who sell such data

Leaderboard "My Circles" not showing player's friends

I have been integrating the Games Services APIs into my games for a few days now and having a weird problem that can possibly qualify as a bug.
So I've setup a few test players with Gmail accounts and have added them to each other's circles. The problem I am having is that when I start the activity with the leaderboard's intent the "My Circles" tab doesn't show the other players in the current player's circles, even though the players show up on the Public tab.
Is there something obvious that I am missing?
A couple months late, but, considering I've recently run into the exact same problem, I figure I'll post my findings to aid anyone who stumbles upon this question in the future.
I'm assuming that you're still in the testing phase and haven't actually published your game via the Google Play Developer Console. Publishing is the key. There are two tiny sentences buried in a NOTE on this Google developer page:
https://developers.google.com/games/services/common/concepts/leaderboards#creating_a_leaderboard
Note: Social leaderboards will initially be empty until you publish
the corresponding leaderboard by using the Google Play Developer
Console
Social leaderboards won't be useful until after you publish. i.e. You'll never see social leaderboards during testing.

Play podcast episode via iTunes from web

I want to make the podcast player on our website register plays with iTunes, to get a better ranking on iTunes. I figured this could be possible if iTunes provided an iTunes URL for every episode, but I cannot find one. I've tried looking at the search/lookup API, but it seems to me it doesn't output individual episodes.
Anyone know if this is possible? Registering/tracking plays to iTunes.
iTunes does not provide usage or download statistics. See their explanation from http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/specs.html#tracking :
Please note that iTunes does not provide usage statistics, because we do not host feeds or episodes. Some podcasters have created
mechanisms for tracking the number of times that each episode has been
downloaded.
If the goal is to get better ranking, encourage your podcast listeners to subscribe, review, and rate for your podcast. Those things are more visible in the iTunes store and to potential new listeners & subscribers.
If you are using a CMS like WP there are plenty of plugins that will give you the analytical data that iTunes (stitcher et al) dosn't provide.
of course, all itunes does is provide a nifty UI for listeners to find your cast; it PLAYS off of your site. I wasn't satisfied with the "popularity bar" on my 'cast...cuz the what is it popular relative to? other casts in same category? all of them? ...
anyway I was already using "seriously simple podcasting" - a wp plugin to properly config my 1400x1400 jpg, my cast and all its meta-data so itunes could
crawl & play it.
make no mistake, this is not a plug; just the way I found that works easy; they have a tracking plugin as well - it tells me number of unique downloads and whether the users are using mobile or desktop to access (not much but way better than nothing) - number of downloads was mainly what I wanted to know.
As for improving your ranking; max-out quality and quantity, make it something people (not just in your specific peer group) would WANT to listen to. Same deal for blogs, be funny, be informative, be creative, be unique, be scandalous, above all BE INTERESTING or your newest listener won't rate, subscribe, or even comeback. QUALITY is the only legit SEO for pages, 'casts, etc.

Location-specific (GPS-based) apps and the Apple Review Process, should they work without GPS too? [edit]

I was wondering if anyone has any experience of submitting location-specific apps to the Apple App store.
What I mean by location-specific is an app that only works when you are at a particular location. For example, a GPS tour of a historical battleground might have content that is triggered at particular lat/long coordinates when the user is at the actual physical location.
So my question is: In order to make the app be likely to be accepted on the app store do I..
(1) Not worry about it as there's evidence that the Apple Reviewers have some way of simulating the GPS. I can then supply lat/long coords to the reviewers so they can experience some of the content.
or (I suspect more likely)
(2) I Need to make it work anywhere in order for the reviewer to see at least some of the content (e.g. have a menu or map interface that allows direct access). This could be a 'secret' option explained in the review notes accessed via a special key combination or something.
Has anyone else run into a situation like this?
Regards,
Ben
Edit: Thanks for the responses. My app has now been accepted by Apple. Interestingly I didn't need to make the app work anywhere or add any new methods of using the app at all, they simply asked me for a video of the app in action. I made a YouTube video of the app (unlisted of course) and sent it to the reviewers.. and now it's accepted! I was very surprised that this is how it worked out!
I asked this same question (and answered it myself) a while back. I basically added a "Drop Pin" feature so the testers (and users) could pretend to be somewhere else.
I submitted an app recently that "works anywhere" (and uses GPS) but "works best" in New England when looking for data (on our server) that is near your current location. The app also supports entering a city & state or zip code to perform searches. So, in the submission, you can tell the reviewers how to test it, and we explained the nature of the app and how to test the functionality by using specific New England locations. The app was approved, for what it's worth.
Basically, when you submit an app, there is an opportunity to give the reviewers guidance. So definitely tell them what they need to know to make your app work for them, wherever they might be in the world! :-)