SD Maid terminated from Play Store due to 'Stalkerware policy'

fne8w2ah@lemmy.world to Android@lemmy.world – 132 points –
androidpolice.com
24

Doesn't Google allow those terrible apps like Life365 that are literally candied spyware?

Sadly yes. Remember how it took donkey years for them to remove Clean Master?

Still so mad the company behind it bought ES File Manager and run it to the ground.

There was this picture app that lot of people loved called quick pic that got sold to cheetah.

Don't like that such sketchy companies are allowed to operate on the play store.

There is this QuickPic mod on XDA that I've been using since it got bought out by Cheetah. You should check it out.

Have you tried Simple Gallery Pro? It's free on F-Droid

yep. All SIMPLE MOBILE APPS are awesome. It's just that I've been using QuickPic for a very long time now (~7-8 years).Switching feels odd now.

Oh, I forgot about quick pic! Fucking Cheetah Mobile.

For this reason, I've blacklisted all of Cheetah Mobile's links on my DNS to this day.

So TLDR: Google's automated scan is broken, and removing legitimate apps and developer accounts with no clear recourse?

I expect SD Maid to be back after the dev goes through some annoying process. Some of the other smaller false positives might not be as lucky.

https://news.itsfoss.com/android-cleaner-sd-maid-2/

Apparently the SD Maid developer has been building a new open source version from the ground up, so even if Google refuses, it's not all lost

Annoying (I also purchased it). Thankfully the app is open source and still available on GitHub Releases and IzzyOnDroid.

I hate that Google doesn't even alert you through email if they delist an app you paid for and also remove it from being installable.

SD Maid or SE Maid or the best android cleaner around dosent even connect to the internet.

This one of the three or so apps I've actually purchased from the Play Store. They better not take it away!

Fortunately I use SD Maid 2, which is available on github or some alternative repositories. These days whenever there's an option I try not to download via the Play Store. Too much drama

I remember using the app on my Galaxy S Duos and Galaxy J5 2016, it was really cool if you had a low end phone...

Only Google is allowed to mine your information everyone knows that.