{"id":46938101,"title":"Show HN: Google rejected my privacy app for \"low engagement\"","points":2,"user":"safestream","time":1770581842,"time_ago":"10 hours ago","type":"link","content":"

Hi HN,

I’m an indie dev who is tired of "safety" apps that are actually just glorified spyware. Most parental control services demand you upload your child’s entire digital life (location, history, usage) to their cloud servers. I refuse to accept that safety requires sacrificing privacy to Big Tech.

So I built Emberkin.

It is a Serverless, P2P monitoring tool.

No Cloud Database: The parent's device is the only storage.

No Middleman: Data travels directly from Child to Parent via an encrypted tunnel.

My servers see nothing: I only facilitate the handshake.

The Problem (Why I'm posting): I just finished the mandatory "20 testers for 14 days" on Google Play. Google rejected my production access. Their reason? "Insufficient user engagement." Apparently, a privacy app that runs silently in the background doesn't trigger their "engagement metrics" enough. They want me to restart the 14-day sentence.

I need to prove to Google that real humans are using this, not bots.

The Tech Stack (For the curious):

Architecture: Native Android (Kotlin + Jetpack Compose).

Connectivity: WebRTC Data Channels over NSD (local) and TURN (remote).

Crypto: Custom AES-256-GCM implementation.

Permissions: Accessibility Services (strictly for on-device analysis, no data leaves the tunnel).

The Ask: I’m looking for tech-savvy parents or developers to install the beta and actually use it.

- Pair two devices .

- Send some data through the P2P tunnel.

- Help me generate enough "engagement events" to get this approved.

If you believe children's data belongs in the family, not on a corporate server, please help me out.

Beta Link & Architecture breakdown: https://www.emberkin.app/en/architecture

I’ll be in the comments answering questions about the nightmare of NAT traversal and Android permissions.","url":"item?id=46938101","comments":[],"comments_count":0}

Show HN: Google rejected my privacy app for "low engagement"