Hideman VPN bribes you to cheat the Play Store rating system

Some app makers try to inflate their Play Store ratings by offering freebees for rave reviews and fake stars.

Bloat Freezer by Trey Holland even used the mafia status bar spammers of Airpush to blackmail you into giving it five Play Store stars, but Google didn't allow the scam and kicked the app out of its app store.

And now Hideman VPN tries something similar. Nope, they don't blackmail you with Airpush, but they promise some free hours on their virtual private network in exchange for your stars. It's a bit like all those companies that hand out freebees if you "like" them on Facebook, even if you don't like them at all. You get a handout from them, they get free advertising from you.

Needless to say, using bribes to increase your star count makes the Play Store rating system totally useless. You can't trust a high rating if the stars are handed out in exchange for some free stuff. If Google wants to maintain the integrity of its rating system, it should not allow app developers to use such tactics.

If you want to take advantage of the bonus hours without undermining the integrity of the rating system, pocket the free VPN hours and then change your rating back to reflect what you really think about the app. It's a win-win situation: you collect the bonus, the rating system remains somewhat useful.

• Hideman VPN