Profile visibility is discussed many times, and there’re even profile plugin and bp-custom hacks to keep privacy. Do search the topics.
User registrations… this is not really a buddypress thing. WordPress is lacking user management function, and I understand your frustration. However using plugins you can force users to answer certain question, otherwise user is not registered.
I’m currently finishing the BuddyPress Privacy Component. A private alpha test will be out within a week. It gives users the ability to set fine-grained privacy control (viewing rights) over all their data.
Great! Drop a line when it’s done. 
pxlgirl.
wow Jeff, this is absolutely great news !!! Will this be included within BP 1.1 ?
Will there also be a feature like “hiding my activities” ?
Many thanks,
Erich
@Erich73
No, the privacy component will not be included in v1.1. It is on the roadmap to be a core feature of v1.2.
But, first, we need to do some private alpha testing. Then some non-private beta testing–meaning available to all. Once all the kinks are worked out of it, Andy will evaluate it and decide if it meets the criteria to be merged into the BuddyPress codebase as a core component.
Will there also be a feature like “hiding my activities” ?
The privacy component will offer a user a full suite of privacy control options for:
- profile privacy filtering at the field level
- privacy filtering activity stream by action
- privacy filtering friends list and hiding the “Add Friend” button
- privacy filtering the groups list
- deciding who can instant message you
- privacy filtering for blogs
- privacy filtering wire posts and deciding who can post on your wire
There are also features for Site Admins that allow them to determine which privacy components are enabled (by default, all are enabled).
Great news! Thanks, Jeff.
We all know bp 1.1 is coming out sometime this month, what is the best estimate for bp 1.2?
Hi Jeff,
Will the privacy component be backward compatible with other BP releases (1.0.2 and 1.0.3)?
Or does it use core features that aren’t in those releases? I’m guessing it isn’t since there was a ticket by you asking for some changes to the BP core.
Also I wrote a message on your wire about the privacy component a while back, not sure if you received it:
https://buddypress.org/developers/jeffsayre/
r-a-y
There are a number of new hooks and an array object that need to be available for the privacy component to function. Although the alpha versions may work with v1.1, the full-blown version is really targeted for v1.2 and will require that as a minimum.
Concerning your wire post, for some reason, I believe that I never received that email. Strange, since I do have all my email notifications set to “Yes”.
But, to answer that specific question, your direct calls to xprofile fields should still function properly. Since you are pulling your data directly from the table and not from a templatetag function, you should be fine. Now, if you want your direct calls to be subjected to privacy control, then that is a different matter. You would then need to pull your data after the fields array has been filtered.
There is a separate table that gets installed that handles all privacy object settings. The privacy component filters the fields array that populates the profile page, removing any field-level elements that a given user chooses to hide from a given viewer category.
Hi Jeff,
will there be a feature like http://www.studivz.net is offering:
– a user can see which other users have visited his profile-page.
– a user can hide himself when visiting other user´s profile-page (so that the other users will not see that he visited their profile-page).
Many thanks,
Erich
Hi Jeff,
if it won’t be a core feature yet, will you provide it as a plugin at least? That would let me solve my problem until it’s going to be in some next major release.
pxlgirl.
@Erich73
The privacy component is focused on providing users the ability to control who has access to their data. It does not offer tracking, which is more like a spying program–for lack of a better phrase.
@pxlgirl
Yes, the component will be released as a beta-version plugin that anyone can test. I have set a tentative beta-release data of September 21, 2009. It depends on a few factors, but it is a reasonable estimate.
“”I’m currently finishing the BuddyPress Privacy Component. A private alpha test will be out within a week. It gives users the ability to set fine-grained privacy control (viewing rights) over all their data. “”
That’s excellent news. Looking forward to it.
I found a plugin that lets users change privacy setting in their profile. It has effect on the profile fields. Users can make their content viewable for themselves, friends or everyone. Here’s the link: http://devbox.computec.de/2009/06/buddypress-xprofile-privacy-plugin/
pxlgirl.
@pxlgirl
That has been mentioned before in the past couple of months and a number of members are using it.
However, it has limited privacy controls and when BP v1.1 comes out, it will no longer work as it relies on a function that will be deprecated.
Also, it requires modifying a core file, which is never a good idea. But, there is no issue with using it until the Privacy Component comes out.
Sure, editing (core) files isn’t for everyone, and it makes it difficult to administrate after the whole thingy gets updated.
Will you announce your plugin in this thread also?
pxlgirl.
Yes. I will post a link here to the plugin’s announcement link.
But, just to be clear, the Privacy Component is not scheduled to be officially released until an estimated date of October 19, 2009. That means version 1.0 is not expected to be released until that time or later. Again, that date could be changed depending on a number of factors.
Also, up until the official release (version 1.0), it is considered to be in testing mode only. That means Site Admins are strongly discouraged from using the component in production environments. I do realize that some Admins choose to disregard such warnings and that is their prerogative.
Of course, just as with all free, open-source products, once this component is officially released, it does not mean that it comes with any guarantees other than it has been sufficiently tested and appears to be ready for prime time!
@Korhan
We all know bp 1.1 is coming out sometime this month, what is the best estimate for bp 1.2?
We do not have any estimated dates for official BuddyPress verison releases. But, just guessing, I would say that BP v1.2 will come out sometime between mid October and Late December of this year.
