What is Reddit's opinion of Austin Police Department?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

I think they are referring to these two apps:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ezaxess.icampus.android.austintexaspd

https://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/austin-police-department-mobile/id1030971413?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2

> 2) Contacts: We do not access your contacts. If you look over the permissions at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ezaxess.icampus.android.austintexaspd this is not part of the requested permissions.

It's there for me, as well as in the photo of the person you replied to...

Hi /u/icecremecone my name is Jamieson and I'm one of the founders of MobilePD, which is the company that created APD's app. First, I wanted to thank you for starting the discussion around the permissions. One of our primary goals at MobilePD is to help make communities safer while making sure our civil liberties and privacy remain 100% intact. We don't believe there is even room to "find a balance," as it's all or nothing for us. Before I explain the Android permissions in detail, I want to say that we (or any 3rd party including our police customers) do not, and will never track any personal information from our users. In fact, we have developed our technology from the ground up with user privacy in mind. For example, in the "Submit a Tip" feature you have the option to be 100% anonymous. With everything that has unfolded over the last few years around the NSA leaks, we built our technology such that even if MobilePD was subpoenaed for an anonymous users information by the government, we would not be able to provide the information because we don't collect it to start. We spent a lot of time on this as this is something that is extremely important to us.

Regarding the Android permissions:

1) Identity: This is required for us to send push notification alerts (Emergencies, Missing Person Alert, Weather, etc.)

2) Contacts: We do not access your contacts. If you look over the permissions at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ezaxess.icampus.android.austintexaspd this is not part of the requested permissions.

3) Location: This allows you to view your GPS location on the Crime Map so you can see all the recent crime that has occurred around you. We do not collect this information in the background and will never store your location without your consent.

4) Phone Number: We do not collect your phone number. The "Phone" permission is only required so you can make calls from the app using the Directory feature.

5) Photos/Media/Files: We do not access any of your personal photos or files on your device. This allows us to save app data to the users file system. This is a common practice among developers to increase the performance of the app. The only time we will access a photo is if you upload it when you submit a crime tip.

6) Run at Startup: This is also related to sending push notification alerts to users of the app.

Hopefully this clears some things up. I don't blame you at all for being concerned given how general the Android permission are. Thanks again for your post.

Cheers, Jamieson