A private information management apparatus, a method, and a program that allows individual users to easily set and apply their privacy rules. A private information management apparatus receives setting data from a user terminal and creates a privacy rule that defines a condition for restricting disclosure of private information and a restriction method. If undisclosed image data contains private information of a user, the private information management apparatus extracts metadata contained in this undisclosed image data, and determines whether or not the metadata satisfies the condition for restricting disclosure of the private information. If it is determined that the condition is satisfied, the private information management apparatus executes the restriction method defined by the privacy rule.