  A recently published pre-print titled 'GDPR and the Lost Generation of
Innovative Apps' by Jan{\ss}en et al. observes that a third of apps on the
Google Play Store disappeared from this app store around the introduction of
the GDPR in May 2018. The authors deduce 'that GDPR is the cause'. The effects
of the GDPR on the app economy are an important field to study. Unfortunately,
the paper currently lacks a control condition and a key variable. As a result,
the effects on app exits reported in the paper are likely overestimated, as we
will discuss. We believe there are other factors which may better explain these
changes in the Play Store aside from the GDPR.

Computers and Society;Cryptography and Security