Access Levels and Privacy Relationships

Privacy relationships are the component of enhanced presence used to control the amount of information visible to contacts. In prior iterations of Communications Server, these were referred to as access levels, but they are now called privacy relationships in Lync Server. Instead of publishing the same presence to all subscribers, a user can control the flow of information based on differing privacy relationships assigned to contacts.

The enhanced presence model publishes more than just a user’s presence name; it also includes email address, title, company, address, working hours, and a multitude of other attributes.

The privacy relationships available in Lync Server are as listed here:

• Friends and Family—Shares all contact information except for meeting subject and meeting location. This level is intended for personal contacts.

• Workgroup—Shares all contact information except for nonwork phone numbers. Contacts assigned to this relationship level can interrupt the user when his status is Do Not Disturb.

• Colleagues—Shares all contact information except for nonwork phone numbers, meeting subject, and meeting location. This is the default relationship assigned to contacts in the organization.

• External Contacts—Shares all information except for phone numbers, meeting subject, and meeting location.

• Blocked Contacts—Shows only the user’s name and email address. Contacts assigned to this relationship cannot reach the user through Lync endpoints.

The functions allowed and information displayed for each privacy relationship are outlined in Table 3.2.

Table 3.2. Information Shared Based on Privacy Relationship