Introducing Field-Level Security

In the platform, we control access to individual fields with field-level security. Field-level security controls whether a user can see, edit, and delete the value for a particular field on an object.

Unlike page layouts, which only control the visibility of fields on detail and edit pages, field-level security controls the visibility of fields in any part of the app, including related lists, list views, reports, and search results. Indeed, in order to be absolutely sure that a user can't access a particular field, it's important to use the field-level security page for a given object to restrict access to the field. There are simply no other shortcuts that will provide the same level of protection for a particular field.