Clarifying authentication for 3 APIs

Author: schnuerle

general-information.md

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ This document contains specifications that are shared between the various MDS [A
 
 ## Table of Contents
 
+- [Authentication](#authentication)
 - [Beta Features](#beta-features)
 - [Costs and Currencies](#costs-and-currencies)
 - [Data Types](#data-types)
@@ -14,14 +15,21 @@ This document contains specifications that are shared between the various MDS [A
   - [Stop-based Geographic Data](#stop-based-geographic-data)
   - [Intersection Operation](#intersection-operation)
 - [Geography-Driven Events](#geography-driven-events)
-- [Optional Authentication](#optional-authentication)
 - [Responses](#responses)
   - [Error Messages](#error-messages)
 - [Strings](#strings)
 - [Timestamps](#timestamps)
 - [UUIDs](#uuids)
 - [Versioning](#versioning)
 
+## Authentication
+
+If implementing MDS Policy, Geography, and/or Jurisdiction APIs and endpoints, an agency must make them unauthenticated and public. This allows transparency for the public to see how the city is regulating, holds the city accountable for their policy decisions, and reduces the technical burden on providers to use these endpoints. A side benefit is that this allows third parties to ingest this information into their applications and services for public benefit.
+
+All other MDS APIs require authentication, as outlined.
+
+[Top][toc]
+
 ## Beta Features
 
 In some cases, features within MDS may be marked as "beta." These are typically recently added endpoints or fields. Because beta features are new, they may not yet be fully mature and proven in real-world operation. The design of beta features may have undiscovered gaps, ambiguities, or inconsistencies. Implementations of those features are typically also quite new and are more likely to contain bugs or other flaws. Beta features are likely to evolve more rapidly than other parts of the specification.
@@ -110,14 +118,6 @@ During the Beta period for this feature, location and telemetry data remain requ
 
 [Top][toc]
 
-## Optional Authentication
-
-Authorization of the Policy and Geography APIs is no longer required and will be deprecated in next major release with these endpoints (plus Jurisdictions) becoming 'optionally private' instead of 'optionally public'. An agency may optionally decide to make the Policy and Geography endpoints, as well as Jurisdictions, unauthenticated and public. This allows transparency for the public to see how the city is regulating, holds the city accountable for their policy decisions, and reduces the technical burden on providers to use these endpoints. A side benefit is that this allows third parties to ingest this information into their applications and services for public benefit.
-
-Note if implementing the beta feature [Geography Driven Events](/general-information.md#geography-driven-events), both Policy and Geography must be public.
-
-[Top][toc]
-
 ## Responses
 
 * **200:** OK: operation successful.