I would like to give read-only access to a user but I want him/her to see only the exact folders I give access. for example he/she shouldn’t travel around all the server and browse to all users folders etc. even if he/she only goes up, up, up I want him/her to go to only these specific folders I allow. So firstly how can I let a specific user have access to a specific folder and then would putting symbolic links to his/her home folder would help? So they can go directly to necessary folders but not up or down?
This depends on what you mean with “access”. FTP? SSH shell? SFTP? Web-based file browser?
This is a good start: https://www.virtualmin.com/documentation/security/faq