Methods for providing a privacy setting for a target user in a social network utilizing an electronic computing device are presented, the method including: causing the electronic computing device to retrieve a current privacy setting for a common profile item, where the common profile item corresponds with the target user and each of a number of users, and where the common profile item is one of a number of common profile items; causing the electronic computing device to calculate a common profile item sensitivity value for the common profile item based on the current privacy setting; causing the electronic computing device to calculate a common profile item visibility value for the common profile item based on the a current privacy setting and the sensitivity value for the common profile item; and causing the electronic computing device to calculate the privacy score of the target user.