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I disagree. I think this practice could be seen as anti-developer, but it is pro-consumer.



The bit that improves user’s privacy is pro-consumer. The bit that removes user’s access to products is anti-consumer.


It's obviously a balance, but you could use that argument to allow any plugin on the store. It gives more choice.

I think it's important to remember that while PushBullet is known to many of us, is posting on Hacker News, is a valued part of "the community" in some respect, at Google scale this fact is not know. PushBullet is obviously good to _us_, and maybe just needs to tweak permissions a little, but to a reviewer at Google it probably looks very similar to the hundreds of extensions they may review a day, many of which may contain malware.

They have to use certain metrics to sort the good from the bad, and abuse of the permission system – intentional or not – is a pretty good one when you care about the end user.


You can freely sideload any Chrome extension it doesn't have to be on the Chrome Web Store


I often wish for a separate browser for consumers that are also devs. I'd happily lift the permissions for some open source extensions I'm using if that means better functionality.


I've noticed more recently of software products having an opt-in option for data collection




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