diff --git a/logcat/logcat.cpp b/logcat/logcat.cpp
index 7b18438..08e3d22 100644
--- a/logcat/logcat.cpp
+++ b/logcat/logcat.cpp
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@
 #endif
 
 static int openLogFile(const char* pathname, size_t sizeKB) {
-    int fd = open(pathname, O_WRONLY | O_APPEND | O_CREAT | O_CLOEXEC, S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR);
+    int fd = open(pathname, O_WRONLY | O_APPEND | O_CREAT | O_CLOEXEC, S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR | S_IRGRP);
     if (fd < 0) {
         return fd;
     }
diff --git a/logcat/logcatd b/logcat/logcatd
index 622e567..5a1415d 100755
--- a/logcat/logcatd
+++ b/logcat/logcatd
@@ -4,6 +4,10 @@
 # first reads the 'last' logcat to persistent storage with `-L` then run logcat again without
 # `-L` to read the current logcat buffers to persistent storage.
 
+# init sets the umask to 077 for forked processes. logpersist needs to create files that are group
+# readable. So relax the umask to only disallow group wx and world rwx.
+umask 037
+
 has_last="false"
 for arg in "$@"; do
   if [ "$arg" == "-L" -o "$arg" == "--last" ]; then
diff --git a/logcat/logcatd.rc b/logcat/logcatd.rc
index e986184..64d5500 100644
--- a/logcat/logcatd.rc
+++ b/logcat/logcatd.rc
@@ -30,8 +30,8 @@
     setprop logd.logpersistd.enable true
 
 on property:logd.logpersistd.enable=true && property:logd.logpersistd=logcatd
-    # all exec/services are called with umask(077), so no gain beyond 0700
-    mkdir /data/misc/logd 0700 logd log
+    # log group should be able to read persisted logs
+    mkdir /data/misc/logd 0750 logd log
     start logcatd
 
 # stop logcatd service and clear data
diff --git a/logd/logtagd.rc b/logd/logtagd.rc
index 46aa8c1..248a78c 100644
--- a/logd/logtagd.rc
+++ b/logd/logtagd.rc
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # logtagd event log tag service (debug only)
 #
 on post-fs-data
-    mkdir /data/misc/logd 0700 logd log
+    mkdir /data/misc/logd 0750 logd log
     write /data/misc/logd/event-log-tags ""
     chown logd log /data/misc/logd/event-log-tags
     chmod 0600 /data/misc/logd/event-log-tags