[Steven Zahm]

@ Cami

re: So if a field is set to private, it can be viewed by someone logged into the website?

Yes.

re: Is there a way to set a field private globally rather than for each individual entry?

Sorry, no, there is not a way to default it to private globally.

re: is there a way to set the screen options globally rather than individual entries?

I do not believe so … it’s based on the same functionality that WordPress itself uses to save screen options per user.

re: There are some fields that my client will never be using

Which ones? Filters are available which can be hooked into to remove fieldsets. For example, this code would remove the address fieldset:

function cn_remove_address_metabox() {
    cnMetaboxAPI::remove('address');
}
add_action( 'cn_metabox', 'cn_remove_address_metabox', 9 );

Hope this helps, let me know.