Great functionality if we do not want customers to see comments which are not related to them (e.g. pure technical comments, code, etc)

Even you have it here!!!

For new versions, see the comment from Martin Winter on Dec 03, 2020 in the link below.

• https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/Hide-quot-Comment-quot-field-on-transition-screens/qaq-p/432965

In case it helps anyone I have a plugin (Comment Security Default) (a paid for plugin) which allows you to restrict who can change the security level on a comment (Instructions).  When configured the security level is shown but the user has no way to change it unless they are in the specified user group(s).  The plugin also allows you to set default security levels and optionally color the comment fields to highlight when the security is set to "Viewable to all users" or others (only when editing).

To configure you need to enable the defaulting at the top of the configuration screen (but you don't need to set any defaults) and then specify user groups (at the bottom). This can be specified globally or for each project

If you need any help or have feature requests then contact me at paul (at) redmoon-software.com

Having View Comments be an additional permission in the project structure would be ideal especially as we use Jira for a lot of non-IT process management.

any progress on this issue?

We need it too ! Same as Greg Kastl

All I need is another function here in the "Comments Permissions" section, titled "View Comments":

Then, I would limit this down so that my client cannot see the developers' comments on a ticket. Pretty please?

This feature is very useful when using JIRA Service Desk dedicated to customers. JIRA Service Desk is too restrictive (no way to show some of the comments), unless I am mistaken.

I have a question:
Using JS will only help to set a comment's security level when manually adding a comment on the ticket. What about comments which are automatically added, e.g. by mail handlers?

The old hacks don't work in JIRA 5 because it introduces the "quick edit" popup screens and uses new div names.

After way more fscking about than I should have to do, I've figured out how to do this for JIRA 5.1.4.

Add this to your announcement banner:

<script> (function($){ JIRA.bind(JIRA.Events.NEW_CONTENT_ADDED, function (e, context)

); })(AJS.$); </script>

And then add this if you don't have an announcement (ie. hide the banner itself):

<style> .alertHeader

</style>

Apologies for the single-line density but the comment field wouldn't let me use a nicer format.

Hope this helps someone else.