Gmail and Google Drive Access and Usage By JwContacts
- Nature of the Application
JwContacts (Jwc) is a free, non-commercial application for mobile platforms, including Android, iOS, and Windows, incorporating a common code-base as appropriate.
Though housing numerous other related features Jwc is, as its name suggests, a specialized Contact Organizer, one intended for charitable use by Elders within Congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses to store Congregational and Public data. Moreover, some Congregational data is sensitive, intended to be restricted to and shared amongst just members of a single, unique Body of Elders in a single Congregation.
It is further intended a user have readily available on all his supported devices identical but highly private data, especially during a disaster or medical emergency when access to a given device might not be possible. It is foreseeable this increased likelihood of access might prove life-saving.
- How the Application Meets These Data Needs
Jwc takes steps to safeguard and share data in line with these needs. Each installation requires the user supply a pre-determined number designating his Congregation, a number which becomes part of any label or folder to which Jwc sends or seeks data, whether that be as email or as remote storage. The only exception for Congregational data might be in case of an emergency to release otherwise private information to the sort of individual pre-authorized to receive it, for example, a physician providing medical care. Non-Congregational, non-sensitive data may be emailed others directly as appropriate.
It is intended most emails be sent as zip files with encrypted contents, a plain text file included allowing identification of source and other metadata allowing those with a private key to utilize the data within. Encryption utilizes only the operating system cryptographic means which are common amongst all supported platforms.
Jwc takes pains to safeguard private data. For example, other email services (Outlook, etc.) may allow login using email address and password. In Jwc such passwords are always encrypted internally using a private key unique to the device on which it is stored and reconstructed only as the app starts on that device.
- Requested Google Permissions
Jwc requests these two Permissions to allow transmission to and from a label or folder it creates for its own use, as well as to occasionally send email to others in the instances described above:
Gmail, “https://mail.google.com/“;
Google Drive, “DriveService.Scope.DriveFile”.
Jwc includes a third-party email add-on for IMAP and SMTP, AfterLogic’s MailBee.Net (https://afterlogic.com/mailbee-net/email-components), whose documents specify https://mail.google.com/ as the only workable permission.
Video at https://www.jwcontacts.com/Pages/GMail_and_Google_Drive.html, lasting twenty minutes, demonstrates Gmail and Google Drive authorizations and usage on a development device on each platform. Betas of the Android and iOS versions are publicly available (Android: Play Store Betas; iOS: in Apple’s Test Flight) though with these abilities disabled pending Google verification.
If less-restrictive permissions are available which still meet the needs described, the developer will be very pleased to use them instead, but he is not himself aware such exist. If the reviewer knows additional permissions should be requested to fully meet the goals outlined, it would be appreciated if his report were to clarify that need.
- Why Alternate Means Are Discouraged as Encumbrances
Jwc is not programmed, developed, or intended to be used with or furnish data to any other unrelated application except, in every instance, with the express permission and understanding of the user. It is intended to maintain data fully isolated from use, even incidentally, by non-qualified individuals, companies, corporations, or software. Maintenance of privacy IS a prime objective.
Utilizing other email client applications is allowed but discouraged, as these do not automatically employ use of the special label or folder to which Jwc’s own emailer is restricted, nor can security of transmission be adjudged as equivalent.
A user’s Inbox may contain thousands or tens of thousands of unrelated emails and Jwc’s (or the server’s) filtering these ad hoc would result in unacceptable delay (or even failure where data transmission limits come into play). Similarly, the existence of too many extraneous files in Google Drive would greatly hamper usability.
Involvement of other email programs and linkages to remote storage services (such as an external linkage for Google Drive) requires both Jwc and its user take additional cumbersome steps during data transmissions and is likely to dissuade some potential users from trying Jwc at all.
The Application’s target audience is worldwide, with many diverse cultures, and doubtless includes many aged men with limited technical skill sets. Endeavoring to allow ALL members of an Elder Body to readily share common data without complication is considered another prime objective, which is why almost all action buttons include both text and icon. A single member’s insistence he cannot understand how to use the Application or finds it too difficult might preclude any use at all by that entire Body of Elders.
