After a random audit, I’ve been advised by Shopify that I need to remove the fictitious customer names in my screenshots on my app store listing.
I’ve basically been told that Jane Doe and John Doe are the only two names allowed. All other suggestions for super common names, such as Sarah Williams (and paired with @example.com email addresses and reserved fictitious phone numbers) have been rejected.
Is there a way around this? Are there any other names I can be using that would not be PII or mistaken to be PII?
I mean really I can’t see what I’ve already suggested as being mistaken to be PII, but the review team think otherwise.
I just need 10-15 fake names to use in my screenshots.
Just wanted to let you know you’re not the only one that went through this.
Part of our app is SMS notifications to end customers. We had an App Listing screenshot that shows our own SMS phone number sending these messages as an example.
We tried to explain that the phone number wasn’t belonging to any particular customer, it wasn’t exposing PII. But all explanations where ignored by the reviewer and they just replied with the same scripted request to remove it.
I understand the reviewer’s job is to enforce policies to keep the app marketplace fair for everyone. I truly believe it’s a net positive practice.
However, if the reviewer isn’t interpreting the policies correctly, or can’t be open to explanation or reasoning, it is very frustrating to work with when you have an arbitrary deadline from the reviewer to comply.
Best of luck to you, I had a similar experience and you can get through it. Just be patient and try to explain your points as concisely as possible.
Just sharing for the community (and @Liam-Shopify). It got past the review after replacing names with just a common first name and last initial (e.g. Jane D., Sarah W., etc). After the back and forth, I’m pretty sure there would have been no way to get around using last names, even if they were fictitious and very common (other than “Jane Doe” and “John Doe”).