docs: plain-language privacy analysis of the official ParkSmarter app

docs/OFFICIAL_APP_PRIVACY.md — readable-by-anyone comparison based on the official
app's manifest + decompiled bundle (v4.4.0): auto-sends GPS to IPS on map open;
bundles Segment/Amplitude/Firebase/Sentry + ad-ID + install-referrer; can send
IMEI; but NO background location. Contrasts with BigBrainParking (explicit-only
location, zero analytics). Confidence levels labeled. Linked from README.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

docs/OFFICIAL_APP_PRIVACY.md

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+# What the official ParkSmarter app does with your privacy
+
+*A plain-language look at the official **ParkSmarter** app for Android
+(`com.ipsgroupinc.parksmarter`, version 4.4.0), and how **BigBrainParking** — this
+open-source alternative — is different.*
+
+This was written by inspecting the official app's own files (its permission list and
+its program code). It's meant to be readable by anyone, not just programmers. Where we're
+**sure**, we say so; where we're making an educated guess, we say that too.
+
+---
+
+## The short version
+
+- **Your exact location is sent to ParkSmarter's servers whenever you look at the map**
+  in the official app — automatically, just by opening it, not only when you ask it to
+  "find parking near me."
+- **The app also carries a stack of tracking tools** (Segment, Amplitude, Firebase,
+  Sentry) that quietly report what you do and your device's identity to outside companies.
+- **It can read a permanent hardware ID from your phone and send it to ParkSmarter.**
+- **Good news:** it **cannot** track your location while the app is closed.
+- **BigBrainParking removes the tracking entirely** and only sends your location when
+  *you* deliberately tap "My location" and search.
+
+---
+
+## First, why does this matter?
+
+"Location data" is a record of where you physically are. On its own, one location isn't
+a big deal. But a *stream* of them — collected quietly and often — reveals where you live,
+work, worship, and who you visit. When that's combined with a permanent ID for your phone
+and shared with advertising/analytics companies, it becomes a profile of you that can be
+sold, leaked, or subpoenaed. So the questions that matter are: **who collects it, how
+often, is it tied to your identity, and does it leave in ways you didn't ask for?**
+
+---
+
+## When does the official app send your location to ParkSmarter?
+
+**To ParkSmarter's own servers, your GPS is used for one thing: finding nearby meters.**
+There are exactly two requests that carry your coordinates (finding meters near a point);
+your location is **not** attached to logging in, starting a parking session, or paying.
+That part is reasonable.
+
+**The catch is *when* it happens.** The official app is built to grab your live GPS and
+ask ParkSmarter "what meters are near me?" **automatically when you open the map** — you
+don't have to tap anything. So simply browsing the app quietly sends your precise location
+to ParkSmarter's servers.
+
+> **How sure are we?** *Fairly sure.* The code clearly reads your current GPS and has a
+> "nearby meters" feature wired to the map. Confirming the exact moment it fires would take
+> watching the app's live network traffic, which we haven't done yet.
+
+**BigBrainParking does the opposite on purpose:** it opens on your **last parking lot**
+(from your own history, not your GPS), and it only sends your location when you *explicitly*
+tap **"My location"** and then search.
+
+---
+
+## The bigger privacy concerns
+
+These are things the official app *can* do beyond the parking API itself. They're taken
+from the app's official permission list and the tracking libraries built into it.
+
+### 1. Hidden tracking/analytics companies (the biggest one)
+
+The app bundles four separate tracking/telemetry toolkits:
+
+- **Segment** — a "customer data platform." Its whole job is to collect what you do in the
+  app and fan it out to many other companies.
+- **Amplitude** — product-analytics; records your actions to study behavior.
+- **Firebase** (Google) and **Sentry** — Google's analytics/crash tools and an error tracker.
+
+These typically collect: **which screens you visit and when, your device model, and your
+IP address** (which reveals your rough city/neighborhood), and often an **advertising ID**
+(a code used to follow you across different apps). Even without your exact GPS, this is a
+detailed behavioral profile shared with outside companies.
+
+> **BigBrainParking has none of these.** No Segment, no Amplitude, no Firebase, no Sentry,
+> no ad-ID, no Google services at all.
+
+### 2. A permanent hardware ID sent to ParkSmarter
+
+The app is allowed to **read phone/device identifiers** (the "read phone state"
+permission), and it has a feature that sends your device's **IMEI number** — a permanent
+serial number for your phone — to ParkSmarter. Unlike a password you can change, this ID
+is fixed, so it can be used to recognize your specific phone forever.
+
+> **BigBrainParking never reads or sends this.**
+
+### 3. Other capabilities worth knowing about
+
+- **Install tracking** — records how you found/installed the app (via the Google Play
+  "install referrer"), tied to your Play account.
+- **Wi-Fi scanning permission** — can see the Wi-Fi networks around you, which can be used
+  to *estimate your location even without GPS*.
+- **Microphone permission** — unusual for a parking app. It may be an unused leftover from
+  a library, but the app is allowed to access your microphone.
+- **Google push messaging (FCM)** — notifications are routed through Google, which links
+  your device to Google and to ParkSmarter's messaging system.
+
+---
+
+## To be fair — what it does *not* do
+
+- **No background location tracking.** This is important: the app can only see your
+  location **while you have it open and are using it**. It has the everyday location
+  permission but **not** the special "all the time / in the background" one, so it can't
+  follow you around when the app is closed.
+- Your location going to ParkSmarter is genuinely limited to the "find nearby meters"
+  feature — it isn't stapled onto payments or your account details.
+
+---
+
+## Side-by-side
+
+| | Official ParkSmarter app | BigBrainParking |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| Sends GPS to ParkSmarter | **Automatically** when you open the map | **Only** when you tap "My location" and search |
+| Opens the map on… | Your current GPS location | Your **last parking lot** (not your GPS) |
+| Hidden analytics/tracking SDKs | Segment, Amplitude, Firebase, Sentry | **None** |
+| Advertising ID / cross-app tracking | Likely collected | **Never** |
+| Sends a permanent device ID (IMEI) | Yes (feature exists) | **Never** |
+| Google services required | Yes (Firebase, FCM) | **None** (runs on GrapheneOS) |
+| Background location | No | No |
+| Source code you can inspect | No (closed) | **Yes** (this repo) |
+
+---
+
+## How we checked (for the curious)
+
+- **Permissions** come from the app's own `AndroidManifest` (the official list Android
+  shows). Confirmed present: precise + approximate location, read-phone-state, Wi-Fi
+  state, microphone, camera, Google push, install-referrer. Confirmed **absent**:
+  background location.
+- **Tracking libraries** and the **location-bearing requests** (`getMetersByLocation` /
+  `getLimitedMetersByLocation`) and the **IMEI-sending** device-registration request come
+  from reading the app's decompiled program code (version 4.4.0).
+- **Educated guesses** (clearly labeled above) are the auto-send-on-open behavior and the
+  advertising-ID collection — code strongly suggests them, but a live network capture would
+  make them certain. We can do that capture if you want proof.
+
+*Not affiliated with or endorsed by IPS Group / ParkSmarter. This is an independent,
+good-faith analysis of a publicly distributed app for the purpose of building a
+privacy-respecting alternative. Findings reflect version 4.4.0 and could change in later
+versions.*