Core Apps and Consumer Apps

What’s the difference?

Core Services (Apps) are fully supported by Information Services and Technology (IST) and are included in the University of Alberta’s agreement with Google.

Additional Consumer Services (Apps) are available to UAlberta accounts, and support is available through Google help centers and forums. There is an additional Terms of Service agreement when you use one of these apps.

Services	Core Services (Apps)	Additional Consumer Services (Apps)
Terms	Governed by the Google Education Edition Agreement between University of Alberta and Google.	Governed by agreements (Terms of Service) between you (the user) and Google. Most Consumer apps are governed by the general Google Terms of Service, but some have app-specific Terms of Service. These Terms of Service do not apply to you until you log in and start using a specific Consumer app.
Privacy and Security	University of Alberta Email Privacy & Security Google Privacy & Security Center	Google Privacy & Terms
Support	Supported by IST.  IST can escalate issues to Google’s Enterprise support.	Support for Consumer apps is available through Google help centers and help forums.
Ads	No ads and no customer data from Core apps is used for advertising purposes (in either Core or Additional Services).	Consumer apps may show ads.
Available	List of Core Apps enabled include: Gmail Google Calendar Google Chrome Sync Google Classroom*  Google Contacts Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms Google Drive  Google Groups for Business Classic Hangouts, Google Chat, and Google Meet Google Jamboard Google Keep Google Sites Google Tasks *Only for the purpose of a closed project	List of Consumer Apps** enabled include: Blogger Chrome Web Store Google Currents (Google +) Google Alerts Google Analytics Google Books Google Earth Google Maps Google My Maps Google Payments Google Photos Google Play Google Takeout Google Voice*** YouTube ** Not all of the Consumer apps are available. Those that are enabled let you use your UAlberta credentials (CCID and password) when you need to access the apps for school or work. *** Google Voice is now a paid add-on service and is not available for UAlberta Google accounts.

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What about third-party add-ons for Gmail and other Google apps?

When assessing third-party add-ons, it is important to identify and understand the type of information that is being provided and accessed by the add-on. Particular care should be taken to ensure that the permissions requested by the add-on are required for its functionality, and that the add-on provides sufficient benefit to be worth any increased security risk. This will help reduce or mitigate any potential privacy and security issues.

If in doubt about a specific add-on, we recommend submitting the add-on for review through the Office of the Chief Information Security Officer’s website at Privacy & Security Reviews | University of Alberta. 

Add-ons may request several permissions for accessing UAlberta Google account information, which may include, but are not limited to:

• Full access to all your Google Drive files
• Create new documents
• Edit existing documents
• Share documents with others
• Ability to send email as you
• Connect to external services to read and write data
• Run the application while you are not present
• View, manage, and permanently delete your email
• View and manage your contacts

Additionally, warranties and support for third-party add-ons are provided by the vendors and not by IST or Google. Any installed add-on can be removed and the permissions revoked at any time. This Google support article, third-party sites & apps with access to your account, provides more information.