Now, the stage has been taken by another app, made in India, by a startup organisation, to remove Chinese apps installed on the phone. The app detects the Chinese apps installed on the phone and makes it easy to uninstall.
It is not good to blindly use the app in the name of patriotism. Users should be more emotionally shielded when it comes to the usage of technology. Rather in the name of patriotism, we should see if the technology is truly snooping into our data or helping us.
At Amfas Tech, we tried to open the website and check their privacy policy. This is what we saw on their website on the first day.
We then tried to contact them through email. We got no response regarding it. There might be a large number of unread emails in their inboxes and we totally understand that.
The next day, the website was up and the privacy policy was updated.
It says,
To show you personalized ads in the App we use specific advertising networks and their partners to deliver ads that are tailored to you based on a determination of your interests or characteristics. You can opt-out from customized ad experience at any time by checking the privacy settings of your android device and choosing “opt-out of interest-based ads”. When you prefer to opt-out, advertising networks will think about this choice as a withdrawal of consent to customized ads experience and they will show only non-personalized ads. - OneTouchApp Labs
It means that OneTouchApp Labs will be using specific advertising networking to push ads on the app which is nowhere mentioned in Play Store.
If you notice it, every app will have a label 'contains ads' label mentioned in its details on Play Store. It would look something like this,
But, when observed, 'Remove China Apps' doesn't have any such label mentioned in Play Store. Have a look at the following screenshot:
Does OneTouchApp Labs know it?
We believe they are aware of it. Otherwise, they would have rectified the mistake and made it live by now. They might want to gain some revenue like any other average app developer publishing apps on Play Store. If they don't know it, they would be notifying users about the inconvenience caused and promise to bring it back to live soon. Instead, they just tweeted a 'thank you' for the support.
Why they don't want to go for a second trial at Play Store?
Second chances are always wonderful. But OneTouchApp Labs doesn't want to take one it seems. They suggest the users search for the app on Google and download their APK file (we suppose as tweet infers).
It could mean that the penalty (assuming) they have received from Google was a serious one and it infers that there is no chance to get back.
What else could be the reasons?
We think the following could also be the reasons for 'Remove China Apps' unlisting:
- The absence of a privacy policy that is absent on the website for a longer time.
- The change in the privacy policy that is not reflected on Play Store metadata.
- Reporting from Chinese app developers with racial discrimination.
- The rising protests and trending of 'death of George Floyd' in United States and other parts of the world.
What could not be the reasons?
Twitter is a plethora of opinions and freedom of speech. Out of the most popular opinions, these are some pointless complains that arent true:
- People started blaming Google complaining that it has taken sides with China in this regard. This is totally a hoax because there is no particular reason for Google to do this biased judgement.
- Just because Google tweeted that their SERP caught bugs and not performing well, doesn't mean that it affects Play Store too. No big organisation would create dependencies of two different products at core.
So, that what we analyzed and researched about 'Remove China Apps' application's removal from Google Play Store. What do you think could other reasons for it? Share your thoughts about it in comments below.
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