Don’t be evil Google

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Let me make this crystal clear, every App purchase you make on Google Play gives the developer your name, suburb and email address with no indication that this information is actually being transferred.



  • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

    Nothing personal, folks. It’s just business.

  • http://www.thegraphicmac.com/ JimD

    Us iSheep apparently don’t get this benefit of being OPEN.

  • Kriztyan

    Use Google services as little as possible. I do like my privacy or at the very least a semblance of it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1042792179 Brian M. Monroe

    I can see this working out really well for Google. I smell a lawsuit coming. I just think of what happened to Path and they do not have the money or resources that Google does along with I do not think that Path is a public company.

    • owills

      Don’t count on it. Google is the media darling of the moment. They can do no wrong until the media gets bored of them and finds some other “underdog” (maybe Amazon?) to root for.

  • Maxi

    Thats because you buy an App from the developer and NOT from Google. I guess this is so Google can wash their hands off Porn and all that stuff that Apple would not list at all: “We are not selling that stuff, we just provide the platform”

  • Bernhard Grabowski

    Did Google just jump over the Creep line?

  • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

    This is 5+ years old and a non-issue. You buy through Google Wallet. This isn’t an Android issue.

    Google Wallet is akin to Paypal or an Amazon merchant: Wallet is a conduit for you to you pay a vendor (as @f049c13bb2a7cf157d6975a30db67c03:disqus pointed out in his comment). No news here at all and @facebook-1042792179:disqus, there is 0 room for a lawsuit.

    • Scruff0

      So you’re saying that if I buy a digital download using PayPal or Visa the vendor gets my home address?

      • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

        Nope. I’m comparing as it pertains to purchasing from a vendor.

      • Georgie

        Via Paypal? Yep.

    • http://twitter.com/CoreyTamas Joel In Real Life

      “No news here at all” …see, that’s where you and I disagree. :)

      • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

        That’s fine. :-D

  • chjode

    Does “suburb” mean location?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Sebastian-Paul/1186812355 Sebastian Paul

    If this happened to Apple, all hell would break loose. But with Google, it’s working as expected.

    Please remember that Apple did the exact opposite when it opposed the publishers who demanded full information of subscribers of their magazine/newspaper-apps from Apple and made this an opt-in-step (although they would have preferred to never give the publishers that information)

  • Georgie

    I don’t really see the issue here. Customers expect support, and nothing wrong with checking to see that they actually purchased your app. The part of the review about tracking down commentators who leave negative reviews is completely false. If this were possible it would be a good thing, as devs could actually get in touch with these people and troubleshoot their issues together.

  • http://mangochut.net/ mangochutney

    I’m repeating a tweet that I sent to @darxmac this morning:

    “Google’s understanding of “open” is very akin to goatse if you ask me, and Google’s not the one performing the latter.”