Oliver ReichensteinSep 24, 2024

It has been several months now and days and days of work that we have been trying to get Google to approve that our users can access their Google Drive again through iA Writer for Android. (They suddenly cut it off). Last week we supposedly passed the last test.

This week they come back and want us to downgrade the scope to read only. Read only? It's literally a writing app!

I think we're not dealing with humans but with an AI that just keeps wasting our time. I'm flipping-tables annoyed.

Show threadOliver ReichensteinSep 24, 2024

So we tell them that our users (not us) need read write access to Google Drive so they can write their texts, and they want us to go through a scanning process that takes at least 6 weeks. One of the suggested vendors for the CASA scan is KPMG.

It probably costs more than what we make with an app that has more pirate users than regular ones.

Guys, we want our users to be able to access their Google drive so they can write and stop 1-staring us for something we didn't do.

Close to giving up.

Show threadOliver ReichensteinSep 24, 2024

They want us to do this CASA certification with KPMG or similar every year. In the mean time we're getting hammered with bad reviews as users think it's our fault.

Instead of fixing their crappy core frameworks (often people can't pay for apps they want, or they pay and Play Store forgets) Google keeps us busy updating this, complying that. I just sent them a stack of paper last week.

Both Apple and Google are squeezing devs with the same percentages. But at least Apple's stuff works.

Show threadOliver ReichensteinSep 24, 2024
Close to 50,000 users are using this app every day. A lot of people love it. But the way Google turned this into a distopian bureaucratic time waster, the way Android is fragmented in versions, flavors and a junkyard of devices, the overall economy of Google Play (no one really expects to pay for apps, except games), the ease of pirating, the 1,000 hacks (delete and reinstall to restart the trial infinitely) to use apps for free, the hostile atmosphere... it's just a ball and chain.
Show threadOliver ReichensteinSep 24, 2024
I don't know what we're going to do but I'm not going through a six week process every year paying KPMG a multiple of our revenue so we don't get hammered by users that can't use Google Drive. Not being able to use Google Drive on an Android device is not really reasonable either. Killing an App that a football Stadium full of people use and love is not an option either. I need to figure out what to do, but I won't comply with this ridiculous request.
Show threadDavid SomersSep 24, 2024
@reichenstein It’s not only KPMG, other providers are available (https://appdefensealliance.dev/casa/casa-assessors). I looked quickly and as no rates are published I assume it will be not cheap (it never is when it’s POA). Plus, you do all the testing and these people simply validate the result spat out by the test tool.
CASA Authorized Assessors  |  App Defense Alliance

App Defense Alliance
Show threadOliver Reichenstein
@omz13 I know. I picked KPMG because it's Google's preferred partner for plenty of things (Cloud Services f.i.). One can imagine that there are reasons other than security why they are forcing devs to hand out a stack of cash to their preferred partner. I don't care. We're not doing this. No way.
Sep 24, 2024 at 6:26amMastodon for iOS
Show threadDavid SomersSep 24, 2024
@reichenstein And I don’t blame you at all. It is security theatre and compliance performance art. The big joke being they are “protecting” users from their own user written content. We are living in Idiocracy.
Show threadOliver ReichensteinSep 24, 2024
@omz13 Exactly. Security theatre, with the cost for it outsourced to indie devs because they are too lazy to build a secure stable framework. It can't go on like that.