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MyDiary gives you complete control over who can view your personal diary entries. Every entry has a visibility setting that determines its privacy level, and you can share specific entries with selected friends.

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How privacy works

Privacy in MyDiary operates on two levels:
  1. Visibility setting: A property on each entry that defines the general access level
  2. Friend sharing: Explicit selection of which friends can view an entry
Both controls work together to protect your privacy while enabling selective sharing.
Privacy settings are applied per entry, not globally. This means you can have some entries completely private and others shared with friends—it’s your choice for each piece of content.

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Visibility settings

Every diary entry has a visibility property that you set when creating or editing the entry.

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Available visibility levels

The visibility field is stored as a string in the database and can be set to:
Private entries are visible only to you, the creator.
  • Only you can see the entry in your diary
  • Friends cannot view it, even if they’re selected in the sharing list
  • Ideal for personal thoughts you don’t want to share
This is the most restrictive privacy level.
Always review your visibility setting before saving an entry. Once published, your entry will be visible according to its privacy level. You can change it later by editing the entry.

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Setting entry visibility

Control who can see each entry when you create or edit it.
1

Choose visibility level

When creating or editing an entry, find the visibility dropdown or radio buttons in the form.
2

Select your privacy preference

Pick one of the available options:
  • Private (only you)
  • Friends (selected friends)
  • Public (wider audience)
3

Configure friend sharing (if applicable)

If you chose “Friends” visibility, select which specific friends can view this entry from your friends list.
4

Save the entry

Your privacy settings are saved with the entry. The visibility value is stored in the visibility field of the database.

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Changing visibility later

You can update an entry’s visibility at any time:
  1. Edit the entry
  2. Change the visibility setting
  3. Update or remove friend selections if needed
  4. Save your changes
The new privacy settings take effect immediately.

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Friend-based sharing

For entries with “Friends” visibility, you control exactly which friends can see the content.

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How friend sharing works

1

Select friends

When creating or editing an entry with Friends visibility, you’ll see your friends list with checkboxes or a multi-select field.
2

Choose specific friends

Select one or more friends who should have access to this entry. You can choose:
  • Individual friends
  • Multiple friends
  • All friends
  • Or none (entry stays private even with Friends visibility)
3

Friends gain access

Selected friends can now:
  • View the entry in their feed or shared entries section
  • See the full content including text and images
  • Like the entry (if likes are enabled)
They cannot edit or delete your entry.

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Managing shared friends

When you edit an entry, the friend sharing list is synchronized:
  • Adding friends: They immediately gain access to the entry
  • Removing friends: They immediately lose access to the entry
  • Unfriending: If you remove someone from your friends list entirely, they lose access to all entries shared with them

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Friend sharing database structure

Friend sharing is managed through the entry_users pivot table:
  • entry_id: The diary entry being shared
  • user_id: The friend who has access
  • Each row grants one friend access to one entry
When you update an entry’s shared friends:
  1. Create operation: Uses attach() to add selected friends to the entry
  2. Update operation: Uses sync() to synchronize the list—adds new friends, removes deselected friends
  3. Delete operation: Cascades automatically when an entry is deleted, revoking all sharing
This ensures the database always reflects your current sharing preferences.

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Privacy best practices

When in doubt, keep entries private. You can always change to a less restrictive setting later, but you can’t unsee content once shared.
Before setting an entry to Friends or Public, reread it to ensure you’re comfortable with others viewing the content.
Just because someone is your friend doesn’t mean they need access to every entry. Share selectively based on content relevance and sensitivity.
Periodically review your entries and their sharing settings. You may want to make old entries more private or stop sharing with certain friends.
If your MyDiary instance supports public entries, understand exactly who can see them before using this setting. Public often means anyone on the internet.

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What friends can see

When you share an entry with friends, they have specific access:

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Friends can:

  • View the complete entry text (body)
  • See any attached images
  • View creation and update timestamps
  • See that you’re the creator
  • Like the entry (if enabled)

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Friends cannot:

  • Edit your entry content
  • Delete your entry
  • Change visibility settings
  • Modify the shared friends list
  • Claim ownership of the entry
Only you, as the creator, can modify or delete your entries. Friend access is read-only with optional interaction features like likes.

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Privacy and entry lifecycle

Privacy controls apply throughout an entry’s lifecycle:
Set initial visibility and friend sharing when creating the entry. This determines who can see it immediately upon publication.

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Ownership and permissions

Privacy is enforced at the ownership level:
  • You own all entries you create (stored as creator_id)
  • Only owners can change visibility settings
  • System enforces ownership checks before allowing updates
  • Attempting to modify someone else’s entry results in an error
The system verifies that Auth::user()->id matches entry->creator->id before allowing any privacy changes. You cannot modify privacy settings on entries you don’t own.

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Privacy in the database

Privacy controls are implemented across multiple database tables and controller methods:Entries table:
  • visibility column stores the privacy level as a string
  • creator_id foreign key establishes ownership
Entry_users pivot table:
  • Links entries to users who have shared access
  • entry_id and user_id create the sharing relationship
  • Cascade deletion removes sharing when entry or user is deleted
Controller enforcement:
  • EntryController@create(): Sets visibility and attaches selected friends on creation
  • EntryController@update(): Verifies ownership, updates visibility, syncs friend sharing
  • Authorization checks prevent unauthorized privacy modifications
Access control:
  • Visibility is checked when displaying entries
  • Only entries you created or were shared with appear in your views
  • Friend relationships must be accepted (status=‘accepted’) for sharing to work

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Common privacy scenarios

Set visibility to “Friends” and select only the friends you want to see this entry. Deselect or don’t select friends who shouldn’t have access.
Set all entries to “Private” visibility. They’ll only be visible to you, regardless of friend selections.
Edit the entry and either:
  • Change visibility to “Private”
  • Remove specific friends from the sharing list
  • Both changes save immediately
When creating an entry with “Friends” visibility, select all friends from your list. Note: future friends won’t automatically get access—you’d need to edit the entry to add them.

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