Google consumer apps, API, and TOS

[Ian]

Hello,

There is a desire to let people use the Google consumer apps (e.g. blogger, youtube) with our domain accounts, but a fear of turning it on for everyone. We created a web page that users can opt-in by clicking a button. This adds the user to an OU called "gAppsConsumer" via the Google API. It also makes a change in our LDAP instance so that the Google Apps Directory Sync won't reverse the change.

After our page makes the change it redirects the user to the Brandeis GMail Web page, which should present the user with the TOS. We want them to see the TOS right away so that they don't get locked out of their account (e.g. IMAP access).

We have asked some people in our department to try it out before we roll it out to everyone in the University. People are having mixed results. I know that this isn't about "core" apps, but in a way it is because I have a fear that it could break people's access to core apps if it doesn't go smoothly.

We only had 20 people try it so far, but the results widely vary. For a couple people it worked -- they saw the TOS then got access to the consumer apps. For some people they saw the TOS but didn't get access to the consumer apps or access to the consumer apps took hours. More alarming is some people didn't see the TOS at all. These people tried logging out, clearing cookies, etc but still didn't see the TOS. A couple of these people claim to be able to use the consumer apps even though they didn't agree to the TOS.

What is the expected behavior? Is there anything we can do to make it smoother? Is there a special URL that will guarantee a person is prompted with the TOS? Is there a way to check on the status if someone agreed to the TOS? Is there anything else you can think of that could help?

To summarize the problems:

1) Why do some people not get prompted with the TOS while others do?
2) Why do people who some people get access to some of the apps regardless of if they agreed to the TOS?
3) Why do people get "server error" messages when going to some apps like blogger or youtube (even a couple days after they agreed to the TOS)?

P.S. I tried clicking login on this forum and was directed to my University's SAML auth which redirected me back here but didn't actually sign me in. Consequently I had to login with this personal account instead.

Thanks,
Ian

[Mally Mclane]

Hi Ian,

We had the opposite problem to you - we wanted the TOS turned off as we were of the opinion, and google agreed with us, that we'd already agreed to the terms on behalf of our users by signing an EDU contract with Google.

Google turned the TOS off in the backend and still, randomly, thy appeared to our users. We gave up in the end and just educated our users. I think your situation is the same, though reversed - let me know if you get an answer!

Mally

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Apps Domain Information and Management APIs" group.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/google-apps-mgmt-apis/-/RlDpnfgt8WIJ.
To post to this group, send email to google-app...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to google-apps-mgmt...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-apps-mgmt-apis?hl=en.