kio-gdrive changes needed to conform to new Google requirements

[Carl Schwan]

On Thursday, February 15, 2024 9:53:39 PM CET Nate Graham wrote:
> Hello folks,
> The KDE e.V. board received an email from Google about changes required
> for kio-gdrive. I've opened an Issue about it at
> https://invent.kde.org/network/kio-gdrive/-/issues/1 with more details.
> To my knowledge, kio-gdrive is maintainerless, so we're in need of a
> kind soul who will volunteer to make any needed changes to the software.
> 
> :) Any takers?

I just looked into it and I don't want to be pesimistic but it sounds like 
Google is shutting us down.

We are currently the 'drive' scope which allow us to access all the files of 
the users. This is the scope that google doesn't want us to use anymore.

The alternatives proposed by google are:

- drive.appdata: this allow only to access an app specific folder to store app 
specific data. It's fine if you want to sync app data between an app on multiple 
platforms but not much more.

- drive.file: this is more a file picker API where the user can select a file and 
allow the application to use it. Again not helpful for a sync client

See https://developers.google.com/drive/api/guides/api-specific-auth

So we need to submit for re-verification and hope they allow us to continue 
using the API. We seen to be an allowed use-case according to their doc:

https://developers.google.com/workspace/workspace-api-user-data-developer-policy#appropriate_access_to_and_use_ofs

But it still requires some non-technical work:

- Create a video of the gdrive workflow including the login and oauth process
- An annual security assessment (not sure how hard it is to pass and hopefully 
it is free...)

See:
https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/13464321?sjid=5292936327783040555-EU#
https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/13465431

I can probably help a bit with e.g. doing the video but starting the process 
needs to be done by someone who has access to the google account (probably the 
board).

Cheers,
Carl

> 
> Nate