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Background

Starting from September 30th this year (end of this month), Google won't allow developers that sell apps and developers that use in-app-billing to show their apps without also showing their address . Here's what they write:

Add a physical contact address Beginning September 30, 2014, you need to add a physical address to your Settings page. After you've added an address, it will be available on your app's detail page to all users on Google Play. If your physical address changes, make sure to update your information on your Settings page.

If you have paid apps or apps with in-app purchases, it's mandatory to provide a physical address where you can be contacted, as you are the seller of that content, to comply with consumer protection laws. If you don't provide a physical address on your account, it may result in your apps being removed from the Play Store.

There are plenty of articles about this new requirement:

There are even petitions against it , here:

And I've requested to have a solution for it here.

The problem

As I don't really have a company, I don't like the fact I will actually need to publish my home address.

For me, it's a privacy issue, as I don't always work on the app at home (plus it's more of a hobby).

My app is free to use, and it has in-app-billing only used to remove ads. That's it.

It doesn't add any feature when using in-app-billing, and the user is free to pay whatever he wishes, as a donation.

I do not want to publish my address, and according to what I've read, you can't even use a P.O. box (which costs money anyway), as they specifically ask for "Physical address" and not "postal address".

The question

Since I will probably not be able to use Google's in-app-billing AND avoid putting my home address, is it possible (and legal, and according to Google's rules) to use other services of other companies?

If so, which companies offer similar services?

If not, is there any alternative or a solution to this problem?

Is there maybe a workaround or a loophole that will allow me to publish such apps without the reason to also publish my home address?

android developer
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    Google Play Store is going to commit **suicide**. – Phantômaxx Sep 19 '14 at 08:25
  • This question appears to be off-topic because it is about legal advice. – user Sep 19 '14 at 08:28
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    @Luksprog It's also about code and making apps, as there might be other alternatives to this service that I should consider using. This issue is of a concern to all Android developers. Also, where do you think I should ask this? I've found other similar questions and there weren't closed because of it: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10632130/does-android-supports-in-app-payment-mode-through-paypal , http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7631841/how-integrate-paypal-in-android-application – android developer Sep 19 '14 at 09:17
  • @Luksprog I've updated the question topic, to make it clear what I'm talking about. – android developer Sep 19 '14 at 09:27
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    You're asking about the legal aspect of using third party alternatives to IAP, the question isn't about the actual aspect of programming(like code implementations of those alternatives). Changing the title(to the current one) doesn't make your question any less offtopic. Don't get me wrong, I'm interested in the subject(following the future changes) but stackoverflow isn't the place to put this kind of questions. – user Sep 19 '14 at 09:51
  • @Luksprog Do you think I should ask it somewhere else? It's very relavant to Android developers (and so it's relavant to developers too), and I see a lot of questions here regarding the Play Store. Google doesn't even (seem to) have a forum/group for talking about those issues (or even anything related to the Play store). – android developer Sep 19 '14 at 09:56
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    Let me go on the record saying that this is a hideous policy change by Google with all kinds of potential harmful consequences, privacy violations, and other liabilities. Could be an opportunity for someone to start an PO box-like proxy service-- maintain a physical location w/unique addresses and forward any correspondence to the developer for some nominal throwaway fee. There could even be an app for that. If such a service existed, it would address Google's requirement... and simply be another useless cost for indie devs. This really makes me not want to develop apps for Android. – fattire Sep 19 '14 at 22:10
  • @fattire According to what I've read, you can't use a P.O. box. They want your real address. Also, I've found out that users already get your address, but only after they buy from you. This is way better than publishing for all to see. At least it takes some steps, and it won't allow bots to scan it. I also can't find the law that they are talking about which caused them to add this rule. You can sign the petitions and raise awareness. I hope it can help. – android developer Sep 20 '14 at 18:19

2 Answers2

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Yes, there is a company called Stripe that offers an API helps do the in app billing without the need to use the Google in app billing.

EDIT : For the legal aspect of this, it depends on what you are selling , check this from google play policy.

App purchases: Developers charging for apps and downloads from Google Play must do so by using Google Play's payment system. In-app purchases: Developers offering virtual goods or currencies within a game downloaded from Google Play must use Google Play's in-app billing service as the method of payment. Developers offering additional content, services or functionality within another category of app downloaded from Google Play must use Google Play's in-app billing service as the method of payment, except: where payment is primarily for physical goods or services (e.g., buying movie tickets, or buying a publication where the price also includes a hard copy subscription); or where payment is for digital content or goods that may be consumed outside of the app itself (e.g., buying songs that can be played on other music players).

The source

Kiloreux
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  • There is no way on earth any individual is going to pay to remove adverts by entering their CC information into a random app. Stripe is merely a payment processor for credit cards... That's all. – Richard Green Sep 19 '14 at 14:18
  • @RichardGreen I never said they will ,i could not , i am simply answering the question , that's all dear . – Kiloreux Sep 19 '14 at 14:21
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    So they don't allow a lot of types of payments. They only allow payments of physical stuff and services or digital content that can be consumed outside of the app. This is quite a weird rule, as I can simply create an empty song (or just me saying "thank you") mp3 file and call it a digital-content. Can you find anything that will let me still use Google's service, yet not require me to publish my address? – android developer Sep 19 '14 at 15:10
  • @androiddeveloper unfortunately no , the use of Google service will automatically be related to you providing your address , however as you said ,selling digital content using third party services is okay and is not prohibited (even though using "thank you" will make it suspicious). – Kiloreux Sep 19 '14 at 15:16
  • I see. Does PayPal also require publishing of my address? – android developer Sep 19 '14 at 15:24
  • Absolutely no , it doesn't require that , you can use it further informations here https://developer.paypal.com/docs/integration/mobile/mobile-sdk-overview/ – Kiloreux Sep 19 '14 at 15:30
  • @AIL I see. How hard is it for users to pay via PayPal ? Also, how does it work in terms of in-app-billing? How can it know if the user has bought something in the past? As opposed to Google, they don't have the Google-play-services to hold support a quick API... This is quite frustrating. I don't know what to do about it. What if I would put my office's address instead? – android developer Sep 19 '14 at 15:49
  • Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/61574/discussion-between-ail-and-android-developer). – Kiloreux Sep 19 '14 at 15:57
  • Exception: "where payment is for digital content or goods that may be consumed outside of the app itself". Remember Google does not consider the Kindle to be pure Android, so if you have your app in other stores, **you're already in a non-Android market.** At least, it is arguably so. –  Sep 19 '14 at 16:11
  • @user Moving to another app-store is a good solution, but I'd prefer to use Google's as it's more popular and mature. – android developer Sep 19 '14 at 16:28
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    @androiddeveloper , google play is so much better than other stores , however there's no sense of providing the address , for them , that is bad and immature move from google . – Kiloreux Sep 19 '14 at 16:33
  • @androiddeveloper theoretically simply *having* your app in another, non-Google-Corporation store (such as Amazon's) would be grounds for not using Google's billing. Maybe Google would stretch their meaning of Android to suddenly include Amazon devices... it's hard to tell. –  Sep 22 '14 at 19:28
  • @user Google cannot put rules of in-app-billing for Amazon, as Amazon has its own in-app-billing service , and not always Amazon users have Google-Play-Store services – android developer Sep 22 '14 at 19:35
  • @androiddeveloper I don't think we're talking about the same thing -- I was just guessing, or hoping, that if an app reached an audience *outside* of Google Play would mean Google would not *require* you use their IAP because it falls out of their jurisdiction... e.g. why you don't need to use Google to buy service on Spotify or Pandora (because they have non-Play apps). –  Sep 22 '14 at 19:40
  • @user No, because one of their excaptions to the rules are digital content (which can be used outside of your app) and physical things (like buying from ebay). However, one might use this exception by just selling a "thumbs-up" image of himself as a token for the donation. The only problem is, most people prefer Google-in-app-purchases than Paypal and others... – android developer Sep 22 '14 at 20:50
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It looks as if the only options are removing any IAPs from your apps or use a bureau (publisher?) service which will publish the app on your behalf (and therefore probably take a %age of sales) ... and they'll need to trust that your app does not do anything malicious and is of high enough quality... They might even want to compile it from source as well as obviously they aren't going to let their app signing keys out in the wild.

Ironically, it would appear that this restriction is to reduce the number of bogus apps that are out there but then .. anyone publishing something like this will just use a fake address anyway.

Richard Green
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  • What do you mean by "a bureau (publisher?) service which will publish the app on your behalf " ? you mean an alternative to Google Play? – android developer Sep 19 '14 at 09:53
  • A publisher - ie someone who just acts as a single point to publish software. There are alternatives to google play but I was referring to a company who just promote and publish other companies apps. – Richard Green Sep 19 '14 at 14:15
  • Still unsure about what you mean. If I publish my app on a website, I will be the one who needs to pay them, and not the opposite. Or maybe you meant that I will promote other's apps? – android developer Sep 19 '14 at 15:06
  • @androiddeveloper You give them your app, they sell it (through google play) using their physical address etc and when someone buys your app (for example) 5% goes to them, 95% goes to you – Richard Tingle Sep 20 '14 at 22:48
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    There is such a service? Also, do they also get in-app-purchases? – android developer Sep 21 '14 at 07:41
  • Have a look here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_publisher – Richard Green Sep 22 '14 at 09:30