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Google Play Users In Russia Can No Longer Update Or Download Paid Apps (9to5google.com) 74

Posted by BeauHD from the last-hold-out dept.
Back in March, Google halted Android app and subscription purchases in Russia due to sanctions. Google Play is now "blocking the downloading of paid apps and updates to paid apps in Russia starting May 5, 2022.â 9to5Google reports: The company cites "compliance efforts" as being responsible for this latest policy. There are no changes to free applications as Google says in the Q&A of its support article on the matter: "Can I publish new apps or update existing apps during this pause? You can still publish new free apps, and update existing free apps. Updates to paid apps are blocked for compliance reasons."

Google has recommended developers defer payment renewals (which is possible for up to one year). Another given possibility for developers was making apps free or removing the paid subscription "during this pause." That was advised for applications that provide a "critical service to users that keeps them safe and provides access to information."
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Google Play Users In Russia Can No Longer Update Or Download Paid Apps More

Google Play Users In Russia Can No Longer Update Or Download Paid Apps

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  • I've not heard any discussion about Microsoft responding to sanctions against Russia. Or are they too frightened that this will highlight how far Linux has come as Russia builds new PCs with it?!

    • Re:And what about Windows? (Score:5, Informative)

      by DVLNSD ( 9457327 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2022 @05:22AM (#62518874)
      Microsoft were pretty quick to suspend sales https://blogs.microsoft.com/on... [microsoft.com]

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        How about updates?

        I'm not sure about suspending updates. On the one hand they help the Russian government, on the other hand suspending them hurts ordinary Russians who aren't really to blame for the war.

        You could argue that sanctions hitting ordinary Russians might make them aware of what is happening, but I think Putin is quite successful at ensuring they only get fed a diet of lies.

        Software updates like this are a relatively recent thing so we will probably have to wait and see how it plays out before we

        • Preferably keep the updates working ... until it's convenient to screw them over [slashdot.org] when you turn it off so they can't get rid of it...

        • And the things is.. If I was responsible for cyber security in any Russian organization right now I would be conflicted over the fact that on one hand security updates in general tend to help security, but on the other hand nothing stops some update from introducing deliberate back doors in computers in Russia.

        • Re:And what about Windows? (Score:4)

          by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2022 @06:31AM (#62518950)
          Ordinary citizens aren't to blame for the war but they contribute to the economy and regime that sustains the war. The point of sanctions is to cripple the economy, weaken Russia's war effort and generate discontent for the people who caused this to happen. Who can say what like morale is like for the average Russian but I expect some are getting very pissed off about things.

          • The question is if they are becoming pissed at Putin or if this is helping to build isolationism and patriotism for Russians? When the US was attacked on 9/11, it made us (briefly) more unified and patriotic.

            • This is exactly the point many seem to miss, what the sanctions tend to do is unify them against the west rather than against Putin, it reinforces the rhetoric that the west is targeting innocents and it is better to support your own people as obvious the west doesn't give a shit about anyone but themselves. Listening to a former defense secretary speak a month or so back he was quite insightful. basically he said the Russian peoples ability to withstand sanctions will be much higher than the wests ability
          • Russian Rouble is worth more now than before the war:

            https://www.google.com/finance/quote/USD-RUB?window=6M

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by DrXym ( 126579 )
              That's the value on paper. Try and exchange money and see what you get. Try and exchange money back and see what you get since Russia has imposed 12% commission fees. It also doesn't take into account that Russian inflation is over 20% and rising. So yeah you can buy rubles for dollars and on paper it looks like it has recovered. It hasn't and if your money is in rubles you're fucked.

        • ...on the other hand suspending them hurts ordinary Russians who aren't really to blame for the war.

          As a world continues to tighten the noose around the entire country, let me know when anyone starts really giving a shit about this problem.

          Too fucking late for that, would be quite the understatement. But it certainly won't stop many narcissists who will pretend to care on social media, for the sake of social media points.

        • Suspending security updates to any country hurts everyone in the world.

          On the other hand, so much hacking comes out of Russia intentionally that letting them get owned and participate in botnets probably won't make a big difference

          • On the other hand they own a lot of the bot nets.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by chill ( 34294 )

            Then there is the "and they're now much easier targets for their enemies as they can't patch anything" angle.

            With all the current hacks going on in Russia, I'm convinced "Anonymous" is just another way to spell "NSA".

          • If botnets are such a problem for the Russian people, then the Russian people can stop creating the botnets that are owning their own shit. The rest of the world can be patched up nicely and have a laugh.

            Moreover, having known and published vulnerabilities in Russian infrastructure allows for other avenues to let the average Ivan. V. Bumazhnik to be informed without the consent of the state propaganda organizations, such as yesterday's hacking of channel information on cable systems [reuters.com], the hacking of the TAS [jpost.com]

            • Suspending security updates to any country hurts everyone in the world.

              If botnets are such a problem for the Russian people

              That's not what I said, nor what I'm talking about. Read before replying.

        • How about updates?

          Oh, Microsoft definitely need to keep the toxic updates rolling, I mean the intent is to punish Russia for what they're doing in Ukraine, not reward them.

        • I don’t know how representative he was of the typical Russian but I used to have a gaming buddy who told me he was voting for Putin and it was dumb because they should just make him a prince or some shit. He also tried to explain to me that the war in Georgia was totally justified because they’re a bunch of hicks and white trash.

          He was fun to talk to online but I didn’t agree with him on practically anything except getting wasted, playing games, movies, and pornography.

          • Russia is like what the US is trying to become. War is justified against people who are on a lower rung.

            • It seriously makes me sad for humanity. Nobody will learn from our mistakes. Just getting the US to realize it’s military excursions backfire 9 time out of 10 is as frustrating as trying to house train a puppy. I used to wonder if the human race would colonize space, now I wonder if we’ll make it another generation without a dark age.

              Then Russia and China both seem they want to be us at our worst. Fuck fuck fuck and I have to keep going into work fucking with vague Jira stories like everythi

              • Do you really think that the US doesn't know that our military excursions usually backfire? That's because military excursions, in general, backfire. Why would we be any different? Did you know that if you are dealt a pair of 8s in Blackjack, the best play is to split them and you now likely have two bad hands and twice as much money on the table? Yet you do it because it's worse than trying to play a 16. US military operations are always in response to a bad actor doing something awful where the inevit

        • They'll certainly be fed a bunch of baloney, but eventually the cracks will become visible.

          I managed to talk with my grandmother about WW2 before she died, and I asked her about the propaganda and how it worked. Of course it worked, she said, and for a long time they believed what they were told, until it became obvious that the stories told in the news and what they could see for themselves just didn't match up anymore.

          When you're told that your armied march from victory to victory and that the enemy is on

          • They solved the letter problem by not delivering them. So Russians have been making cell phone calls and getting blown up for it. No mail home no problem though, I guess

          • I do not want to argue with your deceased grandmother but I've had similar conversations with extended family members. Few people saw through the propaganda until after the war was lost and the propaganda machine shut down. I sadly have less hope than you do.

        • I think continuing updates is https://m.slashdot.org/story/3... [slashdot.org]â>punishment enough

      • Though as the comments further on discuss, the more complex issue is whether updates should be enabled.

    • In addition to the link another commenter provided, not too long ago, Github also blocked some Russian developers. Perhaps you're deliberately trying to remain ignorant, rather than a genuine interest at finding out what's happening.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You didn't hear about it because unlike Google, Microsoft acted fast and early and didn't feel the need to brag about simply doing the right thing.

      It's only news when Google does it because we're so used to Google doing evil nowadays whilst Microsoft is past that point where it cares about the opinions of people stuck in the 90s who will never forgive it for things from 20 years ago under completely different leadership and staff. It can't help those people or do anything to please them because they're too

    • I've not heard any discussion about Microsoft responding to sanctions against Russia. Or are they too frightened that this will highlight how far Linux has come as Russia builds new PCs with it?!

      Why are you making assumptions about someone being too frightened rather than the far more likely assumption that you yourself didn't even bother to read Slashdot stories much less the discussion about them?
      Microsoft Halts All New Sales in Russia [slashdot.org]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by shanen ( 462549 )

      Shhh! Are you trying to help Putin by removing the Microsoft garbage from Russia?

  • Consider gifting him your app. You know, to keep him safe.

  • But how can we spy on them without them installing apps and ditching 'Droid phones?

    • YES. We know to what shenanigans they went even with "friends" to gather SIGINT, I am pretty sure Apple/Google/Microsoft received some very strict (and secret) instructions to cut off stuff just for show. Especially for the mobile devices which you don't even know what they're doing and are really everywhere and really hard to enforce "don't use the phones" beyond blocking the Internet completely.

      • Cutting off app access means that they're going to want to use alternatives. Either that means using warez, which risks infection by malware, including the state-sponsored kind, or it means using OSS alternatives. Maybe F-Droid will cut off Russia, I don't know, but nothing prevents them from having their own fully web-based app store. It's really not any different from having your own app store app on an unrooted phone; either way the user gets prompted for the install of each package, unlike the Play Stor

    • With the free apps!

    • The goal is not to spy on them, it's to force people to install VPNs to access services they were accustomed to. When they do that they may accidently stumble upon news not sanctioned by Putin.

  • ... and it will be turned on you. It's only a matter of time.

    Maybe it will be done to Israel next ... for some imagined crime or other.

    Or maybe to Florida. How dare they oppose Disney!

    You don't really think that these cool tools won't be used again, do you?

    • Re:It can be turned on you ... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by The Evil Atheist ( 2484676 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2022 @07:45AM (#62519056)
      These sanctions required the cooperation and agreement of most of NATO and the EU.

      Without an all out war, it's hard to get any country to resort to sanctions.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by SumDog ( 466607 )

        It's sad what the parent said went totally over your head, or did you forget that Justin Blackface Castro Trudeau called the working class truckers of Canada "racist"? They even started suspending the bank accounts of Canadians who simply donated to the cause, in what literally one of the most peaceful and honorable human rights protests we've ever seen on the planet (and if you think I'm lying, you're wrong and are believing lies yourself [battlepenguin.com]).

        A lot of companies started cutting off Russia before any actual san

        • People like you vote for right wing governments that give corporations all this power in the first place. We on the "left" have been talking about this forever, but your whole "freedom at any cost" is exactly what has allowed large corporations the freedom to do anything.

          Blame yourself.

    • Just read this great opinion piece on DeSantis and Disney.

      https://eu.theledger.com/story... [theledger.com]

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by SumDog ( 466607 )

        This is a fucking terrible article. First off, the bill does not restrict saying gay. A teacher can still talk to a student personally about sex. They cannot, in a group/classroom setting, talk about sex education, before grade 3. GRADE 3! It's an anti-grooming bill, and it seriously doesn't even go far enough.

        Second, DeSantis didn't pull subsidies from Disney. The entire legislator did. Why should Disney get special treatment to begin with? They've basically been allowed a semi-autonomous state for decades

    • I will keep this in mind and avoid unjustified, unprovoked invasions of neighboring countries.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by SumDog ( 466607 )

        Like W. Bush and Iraq and Afghanistan, or when Obama carpet bombed the fuck out of Libya and Syria.

      • I will keep this in mind and avoid unjustified, unprovoked invasions of neighboring countries.

        Yes, you should be perfectly safe then ... after all, the hallmark of wokeist tech-topia is how restrained it is, how it never expands its field of operations!

  • Russia is the obvious bad guy in this case. If it were not because of it nuclear weapons, The United States and NATO would be at full arms against Russia. So the best we can do is sanctions, which I am happy that Google is obliging with. To show Russia how alone they are in their acts, as well have an impact to the Russian people to let them know that they are in a country that is not in the right.

    However... What is scary is how easily a company can disable and prevent purchased products from fully working

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