Chrome Extension Taken Down. How did you proceed? [closed]

Question

My business has multiple apps on the google webstore. I noticed this error below this morning in my account. One of the apps taken down was a test app which was unlisted so its not a big problem. However, one of the apps is a production app that serves 6,438 users.

Taken Down https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tenfold-email-test/pehljafncgpipopidmjncmcjeeadbdfh

Pending Review - Production App https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tenfold/ibgkfepjabgnmpjojcnbcjfgeoklfdfk

The livelihood of 40 people depend on the one in pending review to stay up. I am happy to comply with Google Terms and Services, The problem here is Google is being vague about what the problem is. Google has not sent me an email or let me know what terms and services violation occurred.

Simply put, how do I comply with the terms and services if I don't know what terms and services I am violating? Has anyone else had a similar experience? If so, how did you resolve this and how long did the process take?

Gurevich

And you're asking us, Stack Overflow? Unaffiliated with Google? What kind of response do you seek? The only way we can help out is to point to the developer support form. – Celebrated

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's a question about third-party policies that SO users can't possibly answer. – Celebrated

I sympathize, but this is completely off topic here I'm afraid. You will need to talk to Google and/or check out their support forums. – Ebenezer

It seems he is asking SA as a whole. @sean_sean_sean I had this happen to me. Google is bad at documentation when it comes to this issue. I posted an answer that should help future developers. This has been an issue for 4 years and Google hasn't solved it or updated its documentation. So it seems relevant that SA keeps these pointers for future developers. – Roomful

As a step in the development process, deployment is a valid question for other developers who have gone through the experience. After all... One does not simply, "Talk to Google" – Bod

Answer 1

Here are some helpful tips. The primary issue is google isn't descriptive about these issues when they happen. They will vaguely refer you to a violation in their "terms and services." Unfortunately, their terms and services are long, verbose, and difficult to understand. Its like finding a needle in a haystack.

Notify Google

1. Send an email to the following google addresses with your problem.

   • [email protected]
   • [email protected]

2. Submit issue here https://support.google.com/chrome_webstore/contact/developer_support

Potential Issues

1. Google has been getting stricter on Single Purpose Apps. The issue with SPA is that the definition is really broad. But they do give some guidance. https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/single_purpose - check if your app has issues here.

   • There is an issue within the code itself or how it was coded. Ensure that.

   • All of the files and code are included in the item’s package.

   • All code inside the package is human readable (no obfuscated or minified code).
   • Avoid requesting or executing remotely hosted code (including by referencing
   • remote javascript files or executing code obtained by XHR requests).

On a note here, one thing that bugs me is that I see sooooo many apps that violate the remote javascript files issue. The issue here is the automated code checkers rarely run on these apps and so they get around having this issue if they get past the initial check. So it's really odd, because Google penalizes the apps that do put all their code files in and update frequently (because these get checked more often)

2. There is a violation of NSAPI https://www.chromium.org/developers/npapi-deprecation

Roomful

It seems for me, using external jquery libraries by injecting them into page got it taken down. I packed them in the extension and in the manifest instead, and they seem to have allowed it back in the chrome store again. They didn't give ANY details when they took it down, except that it violated something, but not what that was. Frustrating to say the least. I tried like 5 other things (un-minify, etc) before this iteration finally went through. I'm pretty scared to update the extension at all, in case they might do it again for some other mysterious un-named reason. – Bod