Editor Can Manage Privacy Options

A lightweight WordPress plugin that grants the Editor role access to manage site Privacy Settings — capabilities normally restricted to Administrators.

By default, only Administrators can configure the site's privacy policy settings (selecting the Privacy Policy page, accessing the privacy guide, etc.). This plugin safely extends that access to trusted Editors without broadly elevating their administrative capabilities.

• Maps the core manage_privacy_options meta capability to an Editor-level base capability (edit_pages, filterable)
• Adds the Privacy submenu under Settings for Editors (only if core hasn’t already exposed it)
• Guarantees exactly one "Privacy" menu entry via a single idempotent registration
• Hides WordPress's render-time duplicate Privacy item (shown when Privacy is an editor's only Settings submenu)
• Request‑scoped temporary elevation only on privacy-related pages
• Avoids granting unrelated high-risk capabilities like manage_options
• Heuristic admin detection (treats users with high-level caps as admins)

Hooks used:

• map_meta_cap – remaps manage_privacy_options to a safer base capability
• admin_menu (priority 999) – ensures exactly one Privacy submenu entry, adding it only if core hasn’t
• admin_init – sets up request-scoped access if viewing privacy pages
• user_has_cap – temporarily grants manage_options only when core checks it on privacy pages
• admin_enqueue_scripts – enqueues a small stylesheet that hides WordPress's render-time duplicate Privacy item

All decisions live in a pure Privacy_Access_Policy module behind a WP_Environment seam, so the logic is testable without a running WordPress.

You can customize the base capability via the epm_privacy_base_cap filter:

add_filter( 'epm_privacy_base_cap', function( $default ) {
    return 'edit_others_posts'; // or another appropriate capability
} );

• Quick Install

  • Download editor-can-manage-privacy-options.zip
  • Upload via Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin
  • Activate the plugin.

• Composer Install

  composer require soderlind/editor-can-manage-privacy-options

• Updates

  • Plugin updates are handled automatically via GitHub. No need to manually download and install updates.

• WordPress 6.5+
• PHP 8.2+

• Scope limited strictly to privacy-related pages
• No persistent role modification; all adjustments are dynamic
• Defensive checks prevent privilege creep into unrelated admin areas

Does this let Editors change other site-wide admin options?
No. Only privacy-related access is facilitated.

Can I change which role gets access?
Yes, by mapping to a different capability using the epm_privacy_base_cap filter.

How are duplicate Privacy menu entries avoided?
Two cases. Duplicate $submenu array entries are removed by an idempotent registration on a late admin_menu pass. Separately, when Privacy is the only Settings submenu an editor can reach, WordPress renders it twice at output time (a wp-first-item clone); a small CSS rule hides the duplicate.

Does it work in multisite?
Yes in principle; network-level elevated capabilities mark a user as effectively admin and bypass the editor logic.

Pull requests and issues welcome. Run the acceptance test suite with composer test.

GPL-2.0-or-later — see LICENSE file.

Per Søderlind