I sympathise with hobbyist app developers who suddenly have to provide their home address to users. But… I also think that consumer protection should mean that if someone sells you something, you should have a right to know who that someone is and how to contact them. I don’t know how best to reconcile those things…
What if one of the homophobic nutjobs finds out an app has a queer/trans creator and now they've got the home addy and phone?
Why do consumers get to harass indie devs in their homes at all hours but indie devs can't harass customers?
Consumers can be protected WITHOUT violating creators privacy. The info can be made available to authorities / business protection groups without giving it to end users.
@masukomi I’m a queer/trans app creator and I can't say that hasn't crossed my mind! I guess that's why I'm glad the requirement is "a contact address" not "your home address". Getting one elsewhere is a cost of doing business I guess. As I mentioned in another comment, my accountant will allow you to register your company at his office address. Granted, that supposes that you've registered a company and got an accountant, but that's a damn good idea anyway to protect yourself from many things!
@amyworrall What about all the folks who just put out free apps, and the kids / students learning about making apps?
They're not "doing business". They're just sharing their creations and now they have to pay for an alternate phone number and PO box/ mail forwarding service like your accountant, to keep a free app on the store? Oh and pay $99 a year for the privilege of doing unpaid app maintenance for others.
@amyworrall yeah, I guess, but thanks to the app store's "race to the bottom" pricing we've got lots of folks who are technically making money, but would consider themselves lucky if they make enough to even pay for the app store fees, or enough to even match a week's worth of time at their day job.
I find it dangerous, completely disrespectful of small devs, and will likely have a chilling effect on what's available on the app store in the EU.
@amyworrall technically not "disrespectful" of small devs. You'd have to actually think about small devs to disrespect them.
This feels like something written to address fraud & make companies accountable for their BS, but didn't stop to consider the fact that the VAST majority of apps on apps stores are made by good indies who don't profit.
I think it's just a matter of time before some trans dev opts in w/o realizing & gets hurt/killed by the rising anti-trans bs.
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