All versions of Advanced Call Blocker require a multitude of permissions in order to allow them to function.  Appendix I contains a detailed list of permissions and what each one is used for.

No user data collected by any version of Advanced Call Blocker (if any) will ever be sold, given or otherwise disseminated to third parties with the exception of sharing reported phone numbers as described below.

The Pro and Trial versions of Advanced Call Blocker (“Advanced Call Blocker Pro” and “Advanced Call Blocker Trial”) require internet permissions in order to allow users to:

1) Report phone numbers.  Reporting a phone number refers to electronically sending the phone number as well as additional information (see below) to a server via a data connection.

2) Download a list of phone numbers reported by users.  Any reported number may be shared with other users.

When a phone number is reported, additional information may also be collected in order for heuristics to determine if a phone number is suitable to be shared with other users (i.e. if it is truly a spam/offensive phone number).  This additional information may also be used to categorize a phone number that has been deemed appropriate to share with other users.  Additional information collected includes:

1) The contact name, if any, associated with the reported phone number.  The contact name (or absence thereof) is used to determine if a phone number is considered to be a spam/offensive phone number and also to categorize the phone number (i.e. Telemarketer, Collection Agency).  This is accomplished by analyzing keywords that are either present or absent in the contact name.

2) The phone number associated with the device used to report the phone number (user’s phone number).  The user’s phone number is used to avoid incorrectly deeming a phone number to be a spam/offensive phone number if it has been reported multiple times by the same user.  The user’s phone number is also used to determine the likelihood of a reported number being a spam/offensive phone number based on the location (area code) of both phone numbers.

The user may also voluntarily supply additional information such as their own categorization or comments.  Voluntarily supplied information will be used in the same manner as described above.

Neither the user’s phone number nor the reported number’s contact name will ever be sold, given or otherwise disseminated to third parties.

By default, automatic reporting of phone numbers is enabled on the Pro and Trial versions of Advanced Call Blocker.  Automatic reporting of phone numbers means that when a phone number is added to the block list, it is also reported (as described above).  This setting can be disabled in the Preferences section (Auto-Report Numbers).

The Trial version of Advanced Call Blocker collects the user’s unique device ID solely for the purpose of managing the duration of the free trial.  A user’s unique device ID is never shared or sold to any other person or organization.

Appendix I – Permissions

■ Permissions used by all versions of Advanced Call Blocker and Advanced Call Identifier.

■ Permissions used by all versions of Advanced Call Blocker.

■ Permissions used by the Pro and Trial versions of Advanced Call Blocker.

READ_PHONE_STATE – Used to determine if the phone is ringing and the number of the incoming call.  In turn this information is used to determine if and when a call should be blocked.  Also used to determine if and when the caller location should be displayed (Preferences > Show Caller Location).

CALL_PHONE – Used to allow a user call a number from the in-app call history.

READ_CONTACTS / WRITE_CONTACTS – Used to determine if an incoming call is in the user’s contact list (Filters > Not in Contacts).  Used to add numbers in the user’s contact list to the block list.  Used to read contact names when reporting numbers (Pro and Trial versions of Advanced Call Blocker only).

GET_TASKS – Used to determine if the phone app is on-screen in order to display the location of the incoming call (Preferences > Show Caller Location).

RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED – Used to start the app once the phone has finished booting.

MODIFY_PHONE_STATE – Used to answer and/or end a blocked call.

WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE – Used to import and export an existing block list.

SEND_SMS – Used for the automatic reply feature (Preferences > Automatic Replies).

RECEIVE_SMS / RECEIVE_MMS – Used for message blocking (though this does not work in Android 4.0+).

WAKE_LOCK / DISABLE_KEYGUARD / WRITE_SETTINGS – Used to turn off the display quicker after blocking a call in efforts to conserve battery (Preferences > Adjust Screen Timeout).

READ_SMS – Used to add numbers from messaging app to the block list.

WRITE_SMS – Used to move blocked messages back to the messaging app.

READ_CALL_LOG – Used to add numbers from the call log to the block list.

WRITE_CALL_LOG – Used to remove blocked numbers from the call log.

PROCESS_OUTGOING_CALLS – Used to block outgoing calls.

INTERNET – Used to report phone numbers and to download lists of reported phone numbers.

ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE – Used to determine if a data connection is available.