Which version of events have you tried? Events 1.0 RC5 final should work as expected, .i.e. public users (guests) will not see registered categories or registered events.
Differencing between "classes" of registered users is not possible though.
You must upgrade to RC5 final! In your version the access rights system does NOT work!!
There is no difference in the database so you just have to replace the files on your server (see http://mosforge.net/forum/message.php?msg_id=1176 )
In addition, if you are using any events module it should be replaced as well.
If I have the newest version, how does someone upgrade? Do I do a component install without uninstalling the original older version of the component? Will the newer version read the events I've already inputted? Thank you in advance for any help.
If you follow the instructions in the link above you will not lose any event. The events component data structure has not changed since RC4, therefore everything will be ok.