diff --git a/lib/tasks/perms.rake b/lib/tasks/perms.rake
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..70cd60f0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/tasks/perms.rake
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+require 'dotenv/tasks'
+
+namespace :perms do
+  desc "Update the Unix permissions on the public directory"
+  task :fix => :environment do
+    # e.g. rake perms:fix user=mmstaging group=mmstaging
+    # e.g. rake perms:fix group=www-data #probably don't need this one
+    # e.g. rake perms:fix
+    user = ENV['user'] || 'metamaps'
+    group = ENV['group'] || 'metamaps'
+    public_dir = Rails.root.join('public').to_s
+    system "chown -R #{user}:#{group} #{public_dir}"
+    system "find #{public_dir} -type d -exec chmod 755 '{}' \\;"
+    system "find #{public_dir} -type f -exec chmod 644 '{}' \\;"
+  end
+end