Welcome to David Singleton's web page

This web page presents information about projects developed by the author. It is expected that this page will be read by Google staff, who have responsibility for authorising access to Google restricted APIs, such as the Gmail API.

The following projects are described:

• Vipstest2

  Vipstest2 and its associates test programs (including DavidsGmailTest, otherwise known as GmailAuthJava) have been developed by David Singleton (dfksingleton@googlemail.com) for his own purposes. Vipstest2 is essentially a long-running image processing program (a service account, in Google terms) which runs on a Raspberry Pi, taking inputs from security cameras installed in properties owned by David Singleton, analysing the camera images to detect motion events. In the event of a motion event, the program sends an alert email to specified email addresses. At the moment, there is only one installed operational copy of the program, running on a Raspberry Pi at David Singletons home. As a long-running service program, the program does not therefore have a user in the accepted sense.

  The program currently uses standard IMAP protocols to send the emails, using the CURL library. If the sender (as is currently the case) is a Google email address (see the above example), then the email account must at the moment be set up with reduced security so that emails can be sent using the Google email address. From a security point of view, this is undesirable and should be replaced with the Gmail API for sending emails. As the Gmail API is a restricted API, verification from Google is required. According to the documentation, verification seems to be required as the Gmail API is a restricted API - even for test purposes.

  Data Protection and Privacy Policy for Vipstest2

  The Gmail API will be used only to send emails that come from cameras owned by the developer, using the developer's Google email address. The emails contain some information about the motion event and a handful of images from the camera, so that the email reader (also the developer) can see what caused the motion event. As the program does not have a user in the accepted sense, no user data is stored. Obviously though, data for the sender's email account is stored by the program. This data is however encrypted to reduce the risks of unauthorised access.In particular:

  • The app will only use access to read, write, modify, or control Gmail message bodies (including attachments), metadata, headers, and settings to provide an app email client that composes, sends, and possibly reads and processes emails and will not transfer this Gmail data to others unless doing so is necessary to provide and improve these features, comply with applicable law, or as part of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
  • The app will not use this Gmail data for serving advertisements.
  • The App will not allow humans to read the user Gmail data unless doing so is necessary for security purposes such as investigating abuse, to comply with applicable law, or for the App's internal operations and even then only when the data have been aggregated and anonymized.

  App Demonstration Video

  An App Demonstration Video for Vipstest2 cannot be made. As noted above, the application runs as a background task (service account) on a Raspberry Pi. A direct demonstration of the app with a YouTube video is therefore not possible.

  Justification for using Gmail Scope

  I need to use https://mail.google.com/ to read, compose, send, and (possibly) permanently delete from Gmail.

  • I will need read so that my first test app can do the simplest of email operations - reading an email.
  • I will need compose an email because one must do this before sending an email
  • I will need to send emails, because this is the prime purpose of the app, as noted above, to send an email to myself when my security cameras see a significant movement
  • At the moment, it is not clear whether I will need to delete emails. This will only become apparent during the course of app development.

  The reason a narrower scope would not be sufficient is because I am developing my app and do not want to bother you with repeated requests to change my scope as the app is developed. When I have finished my development of the Gmail interface, I will review the scopes that I need and, if appropriate request a reduced scope.

• David's Sudoku

  You will find a lot of Sudokus in newspapers, magazines and books. Sometimes you need help to solve the Sudoku or have not got something to write with you. In such cases, the app is handy for your smartphone ot tablet. If you wish, the app can show used numbers and hide or show possible candidates for a cell. When you want, you can also ask for a tip including the reason why. Of course you can also save a Sudoku and retrieve it for later solving. The numbers appear in different colours: blue for original numbers, black for your solution numbers and red for mistakes (where the number has already been entered in the row or column). A solvable Sudoku should have only one solution. The app can check and tell you the number of solutions. An X-Sudoku is a Sudoku where the main diagonals also include the numbers 1 to 9 only once. A hint for people who enjoy competitions. When all participants enter the same Sudoku in their devices, then they can have fun seeing who finishes first.

  This web site also provides some further information for David's Sudoku solver. In particular, it contains the data privacy statement for the app. This is necessary because the app uses the Smart Phone camera to recognise printed Sudokus. At the moment,this feature is very experimental and is not guaranteed to work. Nevertheless, a data privacy statement is required because the app uses the camera. For further information, please contact david_sudoku@t-online.de

  Data Protection and Privacy Policy for David's Sudoku

  David's Sudoku solver uses the Smart Phone camera of the smart phone to take photos of printed Sudokus, so that the Sudoku can be recognised and then played. The photos are stored temporarily in the Smart Phone memory. The user can delete the photos at any time. At no time does the David's Sudoku solver app do anything else with the photos. The app can also send emails of Sudokus. If the developer is included as an email addressee (user option), the information can be used for diagnostic purposes, so that problem Sudokus or Sudoku photos can be analysed and the app improved as a result.