[quote name='razorracer83']To be honest, I'm a bit wary myself, seeing that it requires Paypal.[/QUOTE]
One of the reviews note that it only asks for your Paypal
email address, so they can send the refund to you.
The app seems to be a bit of a workaround for Google Play's requirement that any app priced for free is
permanently free, preventing developers from temporarily giving away their apps on the store as a promotion.
They're likely using Paypal as it's a two-way payment system, as opposed to Google Wallet, which is more like a conventional credit card processor. The developer can't refund the original purchase directly, and they can't send an unrelated payment to you via Google Wallet, so Paypal it is.
Part of the worrying aspect of it is that you pay for the app in full, then wait for a refund. If you never get the Paypal payment, you're out money. So you're hoping both the developer of the refund program and of the promoted app are both trustworthy. Also, unlike Amazon or Apple's Appstore, the Developer is out money on this promotion method, since they have to pay Google a cut of the app sale, then pay GetFreeApps a fee for the promotion.
From a Facebook comment:
https://www.facebook.com/gfreeapps/...?comment_id=1663921&offset=0&total_comments=3
When we promote the app, we get an agreement from the promoted app developer, and we charge him a little fee for each download we drive. For instance, if the app costs $1, he pays $1,25 to us for each download, $1 goes directly to the user that purchases the app, and the rest is for us. It's a promotion platform. Hope it helps!
Google takes a 30% cut, so for the $1 app example, Google gets $0.30 and GetFreeApps gets $0.25, meaning the developer is $0.55 in the hole for each "free" download. What if a free app of the day is so popular the developer isn't able to cover the costs of the promotion?
The authentication process isn't clear. The GetFreeApps app has to be running on your phone, and it looks like you may have to get to the app on Google Play via the link in the GetFreeApps app. So it may rely partially on a referral link, but then also monitors the app installation on your phone somehow. The permissions don't seem overbearing, but it can read the SD card. Maybe the promoted app writes something to the SD card when downloaded that the GetFreeApps app checks for? I see that Asphalt 7, the promoted free app of the day, was updated today, so maybe it was changed to work with the GetFreeApps authentication process.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gameloft.android.ANMP.GloftA7HM
Here's their homepage. Unfortunately it doesn't go into much detail on how the promotion works.
http://www.getfreeapps.net/