Each photo has a privacy level (a lock). Each user also has a privacy level (a key). There are 5 privacy levels:

1. None
2. Contacts
3. Friends (which is higher than a contact)
4. Family (which is higher than a friend)
5. Admins (which is higher than any other level)

Higher levels have permissions on lower levels. For a given user, the higher the privacy level, the more photos he can see.

For example, if photo "peter_wedding-0024.jpg" has "Family" privacy level, then:

• Peter (who is an "Admin") will see the photo because "Admins" can see all photos
• Beth (who is a "Family" member) will also see the photo
• Mary (who is just a "Friend") won't see the photo

A user that has no permission to see the content of a category won't see the category itself, not even its title. The same principle applies to a tag.

You can set the privacy level of a user on Administration » Users » Manage screen.

If privacy levels do not fit your needs, you can also manage permissions on categories for a user or a group. You can manage permissions on photos and categories at the same time, without conflict.

You can forbid access to categories. Switch the category access type to "private" if you want to manage permissions.

You can set a category to private by editing a single category (Administration » Categories » Manage » edit) or by setting options to your whole category tree (Administration » Categories » Properties » Public / Private).

Once the category is private, you can manage permissions for groups and users with 3 screens:

• Administration » Users » Manage » permissions action (one link per user)
• Administration » Users » Groups » permissions action (one link per group)
• Administration » Categories » Manage » edit category permissions action (one link per category)