I took a photo yesterday whilst the metadata feature was still active.

The fact is lists everybody in the instance at the time of the photo taken, even if they are not within shot, is concerning. Not just their display name, but user IDs too.

It took place in a group instance which is request to join where private events take place. So it kinda defeats the purpose of being "private".

It should be an option to opt-out of letting metadata be stored, but more importantly, it should be an option to opt-out of being part of said list of players in someone else's photo who may not have metadata injection disabled.

Edit: It's not the metadata I saw. That information has always been included in photos. I've seen the same metadata as far back as December 2024.

This whole situation is pissing me off a bit...

Last year I was talking with a VRChat dev about the idea of adding exif data to VRChat photos.

The idea immediately got shot down citing privacy concerns.

Although slightly disappointed that my idea got shot down, it did gave me the impression that VRChat is was keenly aware of the privacy issues with this feature, and it actually left me with a good feeling that on this subject things are in order.

It then baffles me beyond means that a year later this idea got rushed in to VRChat and with a implementation that leaves A LOT TO BE DESIRED. Let alone shattered my vision of the whole "privacy first" mindset.

I'm at a point that I rather not see this feature be added to VRChat at all.

Not because I no longer want the feature in VRChat, but rather that I do not trust VRChat anymore that they can do it correctly.

At this very moment it feels that the meta data idea was thought up at a boring board meeting and assigned to a single intern on a Friday evening with zero awareness of privacy.

Please VRChat, look at your ideas, mill them over, ask for feedback both internally and externally before you chuck this in to the wild. I know there are people working at VRChat that could have seen it coming that this should need way more time in the oven.

Stop rapid prototyping with our privacy on the line.

Since the functionality has been rolled back, it seems the metadata feature has been removed. I believe that prioritizing privacy is, of course, very important.

That said, metadata is an extremely simple and reliable way to identify exactly where a photo you took was captured.

Why should I have to recall the name of a world from memory when looking at a photo I took months ago? My list of favorite worlds has long been completely filled with all 400 slots. It feels unnecessarily tedious and inefficient for a person to search for a name solely by relying on memory.

Naturally, privacy is of the utmost importance. For that reason, I personally agree with an implementation where the feature is disabled by default, and can only be enabled via a toggle by players who wish to use it.

I definitely do appreciate world details being in there (since I was already separately grabbing them from the output log), but I do think user details should be on a toggle and defaulted off - I would not have liked to start potentially receiving random friend requests from posting a photo to a platform that didn't strip metadata.

(Worlds might also need more granular toggles; e.g. world creators might not want to include the ID of an unlisted world they're working on)

i believe the metadata provided by the initial update, the photographer's name and user id, the world's name and world id, is a reasonable minimal and appreciated set of metadata to have, and i would be very very interested in seeing it return

Just noting that, as of a few minutes ago, we reverted the change to add additional metadata to photos taken in VRChat. We'll see if this is a feature that folks want/miss, and if so, we'll likely stick it behind a toggle of some sort in the future.

As of the most recent update pushed, metadata has been reverted. Great call to hold off on it for now. Personally I would like it to come back eventually, but not before taking into account some privacy/safety concerns from others. Thanks for being flexible and hearing our feedback.

While I’m not totally against the idea of personal metadata, I cannot ignore the potential harmful consequences should hackers or unsavory individuals decide to take advantage of that data. There is simply no way to guarantee the safety of VRChat’s users without a way to ensure that their data is protected. It opens the door to be harassed by individuals who don’t like what you post, and in extreme circumstances, might even make it their personal job to make your life difficult.

Again, while I can see the benefits of such a system, the potential for harm in this case outweighs the good. That said, it would be beneficial if VRChat’s dev team had it installed as a togglable feature at the very least.

Metadata is useful to some people: true

Its very scary to others: true

Some people don't even know it exists, let alone what it contains: also true!

SO

Make it a toggled feature, set as disabled by default.

A single toggle to turn on so you're to the feature.

Keeps everyone safe and comfortable without stifling features unnecessarily.

SIMPLE.

* “VRChat now puts your private ID in photos!”

* “Stalkers can use this to find you!”

* “People can report you for private things!”

* “This is dangerous for everyone who shares screenshots!”

* The “Author ID” is the same internal ID VRChat already uses for your public profile.

* Your in-game and friend requests can be sent if someone knows it.

* The Author ID be used to log in, find your real name, email, IP, or personal info.

* The only new risk: if you post multiple screenshots, someone could link them together even if you change your display name.

* If you never tried to hide your username, this changes nothing.

* Most importantly:

* Purpose of storing Author + World info:

* Lets you revisit worlds directly from photos.

* Helps organize and sort your gallery.

* Preserves credit for who took the photo.

* Speeds up moderation if needed.

* If you want zero linking risk, just strip metadata before posting outside VRChat (easy with tools like exiftool or online EXIF cleaners).

This isn’t exposing private info — it’s storing data already visible in-game, mainly for quality-of-life and moderation. The “stalker” angle is heavily overstated.

Oh and bot friend request is already a thing that exist. this changes nothing