We have extensively customized the user profile page. We have removed at least 8 of the fields from visibility.

The reason is our HR import data. For anyone who is working with an HR system that is enormous (entire state government) and old,  there are bound to be some fields that aren't exactly correct, or use some sort of coded entry that end users don't understand.

End users calling to complain, for instance, that their education level was incorrect, began to become a significant burden on our small help desk, so we hid the problematic fields. Admins can still see them, but not our users.

Hope this helps!

Carla

I'm pretty sure we have never allowed a client to edit their profile page

David