To be privy to something is to have knowledge of it. Usually it is used with the connotation that the information is secret or not widely known. One can be privy to something or be made privy. It has one derivative of privily. It is found more commonly outside of the United States.
It is also the noun for an outdoor toilet.
A privity has to do with legal interest or relationships between people who have a legal interest in something.
Examples
The NSEL Investors’ Action Group has alleged that high-profile brokers involved in NSEL scam worth Rs 5,600 crore have been privy to the scam. [Business Insider India]
“I’m not privy to any corporate decisions and my store is at the entrance so I don’t know where people go after they leave my place,” he said. [Globe Gazette]
According to sources privy to the matter, Silver Lake thought that a merger between Snapfish and Shutterfly would have created a financially viable company that would have been able to take its competitors head-on. [Bidness Etc]
Between the privy and the cider apple tree, he’d cut an almost indiscernible clear field of fire. [Valley News]
The crew of nurses is quickly split up, and “Anzac Girls” becomes a show with three fronts — a field hospital of tents and horrifying privies on a bleak island off the Turkish coast, a medical ship just offshore and a hospital in the calm of Cairo. [New York Times]
GGDC has never had privity of contract with any vendor, supplier or contractor. GGDC’s privity was solely with Peregrine as the exclusive developer and prime contractor. [Inquirer]