Apple and Google Pull Freecash as Almedia Disputes Data Coverage

Almedia’s Freecash, the rewards app that hit No. 2 on the U.S. App Store earlier this year, was removed from both Apple’s App Store and Google Play within 48 hours in April 2026. Apple pulled the iOS app on April 13 after TechCrunch contacted the company about a Malwarebytes investigation into its data practices. Google Play removed the Android version around 2 a.m. PT on April 15. Founder Moritz Holländer disputes the underlying coverage and is appealing both decisions.

The German company says the platform has 70 million registered users and has paid out more than $300 million in rewards. It also runs an annual advertising budget topping $300 million. None of that scale stopped two of the world’s largest app distributors from removing the product almost simultaneously.

How a No. 2 App Disappeared in 48 Hours

The chronology matters because Almedia’s public framing is that “media coverage” caused the takedowns. Apple’s actual trigger appears more direct. According to TechCrunch’s reporting, Apple removed the iOS app on Monday, April 13, 2026, the same day TechCrunch asked the company to comment on the app’s marketing and data collection.

Google followed within 36 hours. The Android removal landed in the early hours of April 15 California time, ending Freecash’s distribution on the two stores that together account for nearly all global mobile installs.

1. April 13, 2026. Apple removes the iOS Freecash app the day TechCrunch asks for comment.
2. April 14, 2026. Holländer posts a brief LinkedIn note disclosing the iOS pull and confirming an appeal.
3. April 15, 2026. Google Play removes the Android app around 2 a.m. PT.
4. April 16, 2026. Holländer publishes a longer founder statement on Almedia.co disputing the reporting.

What Apple Actually Cited

Apple did not issue a public statement, but it did cite specific guideline numbers to the company. According to coverage of the takedown letter, Apple flagged sections 2.3.1 and 3.1.2(a) of its App Review Guidelines. Section 2.3.1 prohibits “hidden or undocumented features” and any attempt to mislead App Review. Section 3.1.2(a) governs subscription disclosures and what users are told before they pay or are paid.

That is a different framing from Almedia’s, which leans on guideline 3.2.2(x), the rewarded-action carve-out Apple introduced in mid-2025. Holländer’s statement quotes 3.2.2(x) at length to argue compliance. Apple’s cited reasons sit elsewhere in the rulebook.

The gap between the section Almedia defends and the sections Apple cited is the heart of the dispute. One is about whether you can pay users for in-app actions. The other is about whether you told the truth in the listing.

The Malwarebytes Report Almedia Has To Answer

The investigation that set the timeline in motion came from Malwarebytes’ January 2026 analysis of Freecash’s privacy policy and TikTok ad funnel. The cybersecurity firm reported that the policy authorized automatic collection of categories most apps explicitly avoid, including data tied to race, religion, sex life, sexual orientation, health, and biometrics.

Malwarebytes also documented the secondary harvesting effect: every additional game a user installed to chase a payout came with its own privacy policy and tracking SDKs. The compounded data trail across a dozen installed games gave advertisers a richer behavioral file than any single app could legally request on its own.

Almedia’s response is that the policy language was overly broad rather than reflective of practice. The company says it updated the privacy policy after the January coverage to remove what it called “language that could be misinterpreted,” while maintaining it never collected sensitive categories. That distinction, language versus practice, is the one Apple’s reviewers appear to have rejected.

The Numbers Holländer Wants You To See

Almedia’s defense leans hard on scale. The figures the company put on the record in its April 16 founder statement are unusually specific for a private startup.

• $300 million. Lifetime payouts to users since founding.
• $300 million-plus. Annual advertising budget across Google, Meta, DSPs, TV, and influencer partnerships.
• 70 million. Registered users worldwide.
• 19 million. New users joined in the first quarter of 2026 alone.
• 4.7 stars. iOS rating from 150,000-plus reviews before the removal.
• 150 employees. Across five offices, headquartered in Berlin.

Holländer argues the math itself rebuts fraud allegations. “At the scale we operate, sustained investment of this size only happens when performance is genuine,” the statement reads. The company says it does not buy reviews and does not use bots, because doing so would undercut the performance-based contracts mobile gaming clients sign.

The Developer ID Trail Mainstream Coverage Brushed Past

One detail buried in Appfigures records cited by TechCrunch is the developer-ID history. The original Freecash iOS app, listed under bundle ID com.freecash.twa, was removed from the App Store in January 2024. The app that climbed to No. 2 in the United States this year is listed under a different bundle ID, com.freecash.app2, and Almedia acquired it from a third party before rebranding.

Almedia confirms the rebuild. Holländer’s statement says the company “acquired an existing rewards app” after Apple’s mid-2025 guideline change, transitioned its user base, and rebuilt the experience from scratch. What the statement does not address is the optics: a previously banned brand reappearing under a fresh developer account is, as security researchers have repeatedly noted, a pattern more often associated with grey-area operators than with venture-backed German startups.

Where the Rewarded UA Industry Actually Stands

The takedown lands during a specific window for rewarded user acquisition. According to AppsFlyer’s December 2025 Performance Index, more than one-third of leading user-acquisition sources in mobile games now run on rewarded models. That is the regulatory environment Almedia thought it had cleared in mid-2025 when Apple introduced section 3.2.2(x) explicitly permitting in-app reward incentives.

Independent voices in the industry have started pushing back on the framing of the takedown as cleanly justified. Marketer Matej Lancaric, writing on Substack, called the removal a damaging precedent for the entire rewarded category and argued the punishment disproportionately hit users who depend on payouts. “Freecash is one of the very few legitimate operators at this scale,” Lancaric wrote, urging Apple and Google to engage with the company rather than disappear it.

“Getting removed from both stores at once based on media coverage, not a court ruling, not a policy violation, just coverage, is a reminder that ‘platform partner’ is a very generous term for what is ultimately a one-sided relationship,” one commenter wrote on Holländer’s LinkedIn post.

Why Apple’s Own Ad Business Looms Over This Story

The structural question nobody at the platform companies wants to answer in public is the conflict of interest. Apple Search Ads and Google’s Universal App Campaigns compete directly with rewarded networks like Almedia for the same mobile-game advertiser budgets. Apple’s services revenue hit $31 billion in its March 2026 quarter, with advertising contributing all-time highs.

That does not prove competitive motive in the Freecash decision. There is no evidence either platform acted on anything other than the policy violations they cited. The structural conflict is real anyway. Two companies decide whether a third can reach customers, and those two companies sell a product the third one competes with. Industry observers, including the LinkedIn commenter quoted above, see the Freecash removal as a stress test of where that line sits.

Holländer’s statement notably does not raise the conflict-of-interest argument. The company appears to be calculating that a clean appeal is more likely to succeed than a public confrontation with the platforms it needs back.

Berlin, GDPR, and the Path To Reinstatement

Almedia’s German registration is the legal anchor of its defense. The company is supervised under the GDPR regime enforced by the Berliner Beauftragte fur Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit, one of the more active data-protection authorities in the European Union. Holländer repeatedly stresses that Almedia “is not a data broker” and “does not and will never sell data,” language that is materially binding under GDPR rather than puffery.

The European Data Protection Board reported that national authorities issued more than 1.1 billion euros in GDPR fines during 2025 and adopted the bloc’s first standardised data protection impact assessment template in March 2026. Operating in that environment is part of the credential Almedia uses to court advertisers. It is also the framework that would punish the company quickly if German regulators concluded the data practices reported by Malwarebytes were accurate.

Reinstatement is now a process question. Apple’s appeals run through App Review Board, which can take days for clear violations and weeks for contested ones. Google’s reinstatement workflow is documented but opaque. Almedia has not given a public timeline.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did Apple remove Freecash from the App Store?

Apple removed Freecash on April 13, 2026, citing violations of App Review Guidelines sections 2.3.1, which prohibits hidden features or misleading App Review, and 3.1.2(a), which covers subscription and payment disclosures. The pull came the same day TechCrunch contacted the company about a Malwarebytes investigation into its data practices and TikTok ad campaigns.

Did Google Play also remove the Freecash app?

Yes. Google Play removed the Android version of Freecash around 2 a.m. PT on April 15, 2026, less than 48 hours after Apple’s removal. Google has not released a public statement explaining the decision. Almedia confirmed the Android takedown in founder Moritz Holländer’s April 16 statement and said it has filed appeals with both platforms.

Is Freecash a legitimate way to earn money?

Freecash paid out more than $300 million to its 70 million registered users since launch, according to Almedia’s own figures, so payouts have been real for many users. The disputed question is what users gave up in exchange. Malwarebytes reported that the privacy policy authorized collection of sensitive categories including health, biometrics, and sexual orientation, which Almedia disputes as accurate of its actual practice.

What is rewarded user acquisition and why is it controversial?

Rewarded user acquisition pays users for completing in-app actions, such as reaching a level or making a purchase, rather than for the install itself. Apple permitted the model under guideline 3.2.2(x) in mid-2025. The controversy sits in two places: whether the post-install action is genuine engagement or a thinly disguised install incentive, and what data is collected along the way.

Has Freecash been removed from the App Store before?

Yes. The original Freecash iOS app, listed under bundle ID com.freecash.twa, was removed from the App Store in January 2024. The app that climbed back to No. 2 in the United States in 2026 was listed under a different bundle ID, com.freecash.app2, after Almedia acquired an existing rewards app and rebuilt it following Apple’s mid-2025 guideline update.

What happens to user balances now that the app is gone?

Almedia has not published a specific operational guide for users with pending balances after the takedowns, but the web version of Freecash at freecash.com remained accessible during the appeal period, which preserved access to existing accounts. Users who installed the app before April 13 can typically continue using it on their devices, though new installs are blocked.

The takedowns hand the rewarded UA industry a question it has avoided answering for years. A 70-million-user platform with $300 million in lifetime payouts and a German GDPR registration can be removed from both major app stores within 48 hours on policy grounds the company says it did not violate. Whether Almedia wins its appeals or not, the next operator at this scale will plan for the same risk.