Privacy settings in Tools

Is there a way to change privacy settings in Tools? The new Directory does not allow anyone but the member to adjust their privacy. I am a clerk and often have requests to change these settings.

Yes, just find the household or individual, press on the 'pencil in red circle' icon in the lower right and then select the Privacy tab. At least that's where it is on Android. I expect iOS is very similar.

This week we had a change where several members have entire wards now show up as private in their tools. Did SLC make a blanket change? Do we all have to go back in and "opt-in" even though our settings are already set to Stake Visibility? I'm curious if other stakes are seeing this same change.

Nickimball1 wrote:This week we had a change where several members have entire wards now show up as private in their tools. Did SLC make a blanket change? Do we all have to go back in and "opt-in" even though our settings are already set to Stake Visibility? I'm curious if other stakes are seeing this same change.

I don't know where in the world you are located, but some countries require an "opt-in" posture where the US is an "Opt-out" posture. If your area saw recent legal changes requiring members to be marked private unless they "opt in," that would explain a blanket change to your stake.

There is also the possibility of an incorrect sync due to server loads on Sundays which prevent the data to come down correctly and then who knows how Member Tools would display the results. I have done a recent sync today (I'm in Oklahoma, USA) and have no problems seeing members in our ward and stake.

It's not in the release notes, but I noticed a recent update to Tools made it clear what information has been tagged "private" so as to caution leadership about giving that information out. That, combined with living in a "opt-in" country like the UK, could cause what you're seeing.

Nickimball1 wrote:This week we had a change where several members have entire wards now show up as private in their tools. Did SLC make a blanket change? Do we all have to go back in and "opt-in" even though our settings are already set to Stake Visibility? I'm curious if other stakes are seeing this same change.

I live in Texas and we recently noticed the same issue as above except that 20-25% of the ward members had some piece of their information (email typically) become private without the member changing anything. The recent orange notification change has made it more obvious but some members have mentioned that it happened earlier in 2020. Is there a known issue or a known fix?

jhausen wrote:I live in Texas and we recently noticed the same issue as above except that 20-25% of the ward members had some piece of their information (email typically) become private without the member changing anything. The recent orange notification change has made it more obvious but some members have mentioned that it happened earlier in 2020. Is there a known issue or a known fix?

There's been scattered reports in the forum, but nothing really definitive.

Since yesterday (04/10/21) I am seeing "Private-Leadership Only" by most of the names when I go to the organization level in tools. Is this a fault with a new download, or has there been a legal change?

broalexander wrote:Since yesterday (04/10/21) I am seeing "Private-Leadership Only" by most of the names when I go to the organization level in tools. Is this a fault with a new download, or has there been a legal change?

Not that I've heard of. What country are you in? Any legal change would be country-specific.

Those who have set their information to private are showing up in orange now in Member Tools on my phone.

lajackson wrote:Those who have set their information to private are showing up in orange now in Member Tools on my phone.

They have been showing that way for some time for me (Android device). However, I have not seen any unusual behavior - the small number are either the same ones who have always requested no contact when contacted or are a couple of recent developments with individuals where I'm aware of the reason for the change.

I'm having the same problem as broalexander. I am a Stake Executive Secretary and normally can see all kinds of information but it currently allows me to see almost no one outside my ward. Any ideas?

sdeery wrote:I'm having the same problem as broalexander. I am a Stake Executive Secretary and normally can see all kinds of information but it currently allows me to see almost no one outside my ward. Any ideas?

Only the leaders in a unit with membership edit permissions can change a member's privacy settings in Member Tools. Stake leaders do not have access to make changes in Member Tools. And since Member Tools is the only place a leader can make changes to member privacy settings then stake leaders can only view privacy settings in the Ward Directory and Map app online. I do not know whether or not a stake leader can view privacy settings in Member Tools, but if they can they cannot edit those settings.

sdeery wrote:I'm having the same problem as broalexander. I am a Stake Executive Secretary and normally can see all kinds of information but it currently allows me to see almost no one outside my ward. Any ideas?

You might want to contact support and see if that's by design or a bug.

I have also seen members' contact information spontaneously marked as private without the member having any idea how that happened. I don't believe they somehow changed it by accident. I suspect that there is a bug in the system that is causing unexpected behavior.

broalexander wrote:Since yesterday (04/10/21) I am seeing "Private-Leadership Only" by most of the names when I go to the organization level in tools. Is this a fault with a new download, or has there been a legal change?

I'm getting the same thing when I use the app on my iPhone. When I click on the Organizations tab at the bottom all but one of the bishopric are listed Private—Leadership Only. (Seems odd that the bishopric would want to be private.) But when I bring them up on my laptop, I can see them all. So it doesn't seem to be a blanket change. Maybe just an iOS issue?

In our household one of us would like to have their information set to private, leadership only and the other (spouse) would like to not be private at all. It looks to me like the setting apply to the household not the individual names. Is there a way to have different settings in the same house?

You can set both an individual privacy level and a household level. The most restrictive setting applies, so setting the household to private effectively makes all of the individual information private.

To do what you want, set the household to stake for all items and then go to the individual who wants to be private and adjust their individual settings.

Attempting to change individual privacy settings in tools crashes the app -- I'll try to report this through an official channel.

I'M a fairly new ward clerk and was asked by a member to remove the phone, email, & address privacy setting on his tools directory. How do I do that with an i-phone app? I can't find a way using tools which gives me access to membership, finance, etc.

jdhsunset wrote: Sun Feb 04, 2024 10:18 pm I'M a fairly new ward clerk and was asked by a member to remove the phone, email, & address privacy setting on his tools directory. How do I do that with an i-phone app? I can't find a way using tools which gives me access to membership, finance, etc.

[The following is reportedly incorrect. Please see the next couple of posts.]

If I'm informed correctly, only the member himself/herself can remove the privacy settings.

That is incorrect, the ward clerk can do it but only in the member app. Ask the former clerk or the stake clerk to show you how. It's fairly easy, but lengthy to explain in words, easier to show how.

Just as a note, any adult member of a household can change the contact information and privacy settings for any member of the household. Currently that can only be done in Member Tools. Sometime between now and 2026 the same capabilities will be available in the online Directory and Map.

How recent was your calling recorded in LCR? It may take 24 hours, but no more than 48 hours, for permissions to get through all systems. You may also need to do a data refresh in Member Tools to force the data to re-download with your calling permissions. Simply doing a sync may not get your new permissions updated.

If your permissions are available in Member Tools you can edit the visibility settings by going to the household and selecting the member's name from the household list or by going to the member directly by using the Name option next to your unit name and scrolling to the name or entering the name in the search text box. With the member selected, and at the Contact tab, scroll down to the contact information section and tap the Edit Information button for each item that needs to have the visibility setting changed. Tap the edit icon (pencil) to the right of the item to edit the item and the visibility setting.