Changing the default privacy of ticket comments

What's my plan?







All Suites

Team, Growth, Professional, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus










Support

Team, Professional, or Enterprise







Verified AI summary ◀▼
Learn how to change the default privacy of ticket comments to private, ensuring internal notes are not visible to customers. This feature helps maintain confidentiality and control over ticket information. Additionally, you can restrict agent access to private comments on tickets they request, enhancing privacy for sensitive information. Customize these settings to align with your team's workflow and privacy needs.





Location: Admin Center > Objects and rules > Tickets >
Settings

Your agents reply to customer tickets by adding comments to them. They can do
this either through the Zendesk Support web interface, or by responding to
the ticket using email or another messaging channel.
This article includes these sections:

About public and private comments
Making agent comments private by default
Restricting agent access on tickets where they're the requester (Enterprise only)



About public and private comments

You can configure ticket comments in one of two ways:


Public: Ticket comments can be seen by the
customer. Public comments are written on the
Public reply (or messaging channel) of the
ticket comments field. For example, here's where
agents can add public replies from the ticket
interface



Private: In general, private comments (known as
internal notes) can be seen by agents, but
cannot be seen by the customer. These are great for
discussing tickets internally with your team without
having to involve the customer. However, on
Enterprise plans, admins can configure agent
access to private comments and agent-only
fields on tickets they request. For example, here's
where agents can add private comments from the
ticket interface:






Making agent comments private by default

By default, when an agent adds a comment, the comment becomes public. For
example, if the agent wants to add a private comment to the ticket
from the ticket interface, they must first select Internal
note. If they forget, the customer will see what they
write.

Note: There’s one exception to the Public by default setting. Tickets
that only have internal notes and no public comments will always default to internal notes,
even if the setting is turned on.
If you prefer, you can configure ticket comments from agents to be
private by default. Then, when an agent adds a comment from the
ticket interface, they will need to select a public channel (such as
email) instead of an Internal note if they want the customer
to see the comment.
If CCs are enabled, you can also change the default comment privacy for
end user CCs. See Configuring CC and follower
permissions.
Settings to make agent comments private by default do not apply to
channels that are considered live, including chat, messaging,
and social media. See About channel switching logic
in the ticket composer.
To configure private ticket comments as the default

In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Settings.
Click Comment options for agents to expand it.
Deselect both these options: Set composer to public channel
by default and Allow agent comments via email
to be public by
default. If
the Zendesk Agent Workspace is not turned on in
your account, the option names vary slightly.
Deselect both these options: Allow agent comments
by web to be public by default and Allow
agent comments via email to be public by
default.



Note: For information about comment privacy when email replies are involved,
see Understanding when email
replies become public or private comments.



Restricting agent access on tickets where they're the requester (Enterprise only)

Admins can configure the visibility of private comments on tickets where an
agent is the requester, regardless of the tickets' group assignments.
If you restrict agents in your account from seeing internal notes and
agent-only fields, they won't be able to access the tickets in
Support where they're the requester. Instead, they can use their
email or your help center's customer
portal to access tickets where they're the
requester.
Consider the following before updating your agent as requester
settings:
For agents to manage their requested tickets in your
help center, you must activate your help
center and enable agents to
access request forms.
If agents submit tickets to brands they don't belong to,
consider the agents' visibility to those tickets in
your help center's customer portal. You can update your
configuration to give agents visibility
across brands.



To restrict agent access to tickets they submit as the
requester
In Admin Center, click
Workspaces in the sidebar, then select Agent tools > Agent interface.
Under Agent is the requester, choose the level of
access you want agents to have to internal notes on
tickets where they're the requester:

Show all internal notes: No
restrictions. Agents can view internal notes on
tickets where they're the requester, regardless of
group assignment. This applies to tickets in
Support only; internal notes aren't visible on
their requested tickets in your help center.

Hide internal notes on tickets assigned to
private groups

Agent access to internal notes on tickets
where they're the requester is restricted if the
tickets are assigned to a private ticket
group or brand they don't belong to. In
this case, the agent's internal notes become
public.
If the agent is the requester and the ticket
is assigned to a private ticket group or brand
they don't belong to, the agent loses access to
the ticket in the Agent Workspace. They can access
it in your help center under My Requests, since
the system now treats them as an end user for that
ticket.
Agents in custom roles
with access to all tickets can still view internal
notes on tickets where they're the requester, even
when this option is selected.



Hide all internal notes:
Agent access to internal notes on tickets
where they're the requester is restricted if the
tickets are assigned to a private ticket group,
public ticket group, or brand the agent doesn't
belong to. In this case, the agent's internal
notes become public.
If the agent is the requester and the ticket
is assigned to a private group, public ticket
group, or brand they don't belong to, the agent
loses access to the ticket in the Agent Workspace.
They can access it in your help center under My
Requests, since the system now treats them as an
end user for that ticket.
Agents in custom roles
with access to all tickets can still view internal
notes on tickets where they're the requester, even
when this option is selected.




Click Save.





//
const fast_path_style = document.createElement('style');
fast_path_style.innerHTML = `#article-body .fastpath{font-size:.9em;background-color:#f3f3f3;border:1px solid #d3d3d3;padding:10px 10px 8px;margin-bottom:16px}#article-body .fastpath::before{content:none!important}`;
document.head.appendChild(fast_path_style);
//

//
const banner_style = document.createElement('style');
banner_style.innerHTML = `#styled-article-body{padding:0 0 0}#article-body #docs-wmp-link{text-align:right;font-size:.8em}#article-body .article-banners{margin-bottom:1rem}#article-body .article-banner{border:1px solid #ded7ca;background-color:#f6f0e6;margin:0 0 3px;line-height:1}#article-body .article-banner table{border-collapse:collapse;border:none;margin:0;width:auto}#article-body .article-banner td{padding:8px 6px 8px;border:none;font-size:.85em}#article-body .article-banner td:nth-child(2){border-left:1px solid #d0c9bd}#article-body .article-banner strong{font-weight:400;text-shadow:0 0 1px rgba(0,0,0,.5);letter-spacing:.5px}@media (min-width:1600px){#article-body .article-banner td{font-size:.8em}#article-body .docs-wmp-link{font-size:.7em}}`;
document.head.appendChild(banner_style);