Apps available in regions we did not approve?

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Alon Yaffe

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May 24, 2012, 8:19:23 AM5/24/12
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Hi,

We got a report from a user in Singapore that was able to install our app, even though it is restricted to regions in the US, Canada and Western Europe. Looking at the app submission page, there's no checkbox for Singapore... so does that mean that we can't prevent users in Singapore from installing our app? Here's a link to the app in case you need it: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/aeanibohjlokjdpopecapcfaacnhdifi

Thanks,

Alon.

PhistucK

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May 24, 2012, 8:34:45 AM5/24/12
to Alon Yaffe, chromi...@chromium.org
I am not sure this restricts people from installing your application, I think it only excludes it from search results in that country.

☆PhistucK



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Alon Yaffe

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May 24, 2012, 8:56:19 AM5/24/12
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Interesting... then it needs to be better explained. Can someone from the Chrome team confirm this?

Alon.


On Thursday, May 24, 2012 8:34:45 AM UTC-4, PhistucK wrote:
I am not sure this restricts people from installing your application, I think it only excludes it from search results in that country.

☆PhistucK



On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 3:19 PM, Alon Yaffe <alon....@installfree.com> wrote:
Hi,

We got a report from a user in Singapore that was able to install our app, even though it is restricted to regions in the US, Canada and Western Europe. Looking at the app submission page, there's no checkbox for Singapore... so does that mean that we can't prevent users in Singapore from installing our app? Here's a link to the app in case you need it: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/aeanibohjlokjdpopecapcfaacnhdifi

Thanks,

Alon.

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Paul Kinlan

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May 24, 2012, 9:09:28 AM5/24/12
to Alon Yaffe, chromi...@chromium.org
I can confirm it, the region feature is only for stopping your listing from being displayed in search and navigation of a regional store.  It doesn't prevent the user from downloading the app if given the link.

P


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Alon Yaffe

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May 24, 2012, 9:18:12 AM5/24/12
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Thanks, Paul.

We are already doing our own geo check so the issue is mostly about user experience rather than actual exposure. What happened was that a user in Singapore followed a direct link to our extension that was posted in an online review. He installed the extension and when he tried to use it he got our super friendly "region not supported" message. So... naturally... he reported a bug, and could have just as easily given us a 1-star review for not providing the service we promised.

For now, I will update the description of the extension (and our other apps) to indicate the supported regions, but I think that's just putting a bandaid on the problem. There needs to be a better way to handle this case.

Thanks for the quick response!

Alon.

Abraham Williams

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May 24, 2012, 10:45:35 AM5/24/12
to Alon Yaffe, chromi...@chromium.org
Keep in mind that someone from the US could just have easily emailed the crx file to the user in Singapore so blocking downloads in unsupported regions is only as effective as the users lack of determination.

Abraham
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Alon Yaffe

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May 24, 2012, 11:03:21 AM5/24/12
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That's a good point... and probably something else to consider. If users can so easily get to the CRX and then unzip it and look at the source of the extension, how can app developers protect their IP? But I guess that's a completely separate discussion :-)

Joe Marini

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May 24, 2012, 11:39:03 AM5/24/12
to Alon Yaffe, chromi...@chromium.org
One possible solution would be for the Chrome extension installer to have some way of checking the CRX manifest to see if a given region is not supported and then politely informing the user of this during the install process. I will take this feedback to the team.


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