on Twitter and Instagram or another social network, everything you post is saved even when you delete it for as long as I remember 6 months or 2 years, but in a place like VRChat it is impossible to have a record of a person committing crimes such as trafficking of information or being used by criminal groups (in this case, most of these criminals would change platforms such as discord and Telegran if vrchat continues with "automated audio and video recordings"), so that vrchat is the only way to protect themselves before a judge in a process they are evidence (in this case, video and audio recording), and the truth is that it is impossible to reverse this (at least for now)

The truth is that this only bothers you if you do something wrong, don't get me wrong, for me I feel safer because if someone threatens to kill you in real life you can use that as evidence for the judge, (this example is very extreme but there are many cases of harassment on vrchat and this makes it much easier to punish people)

legally by law they are not allowed to record private instances because they would need verbal consent of the user being recorded regardless thats real life laws however in public spaces its freedom of media so that would be allow in public instances without reason to record.

it better give you a notification at least when they start recording, having it in TOS that nobody ever read ever is not enough when it comes to literaly recording you when you dont even know it. even if its a buffer

Privacy is a form of safety, wiretapping and whatnot defeats this.

A player recording is one thing, I can block them and not deal with them. I can't block an automated system though, which is a problem.

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Moderation is a complex topic, you want to ensure the safety of everyone and that is a noble and desirable goal.

However by prying into the privacy of everyone, you jeopardize that very safety.

That someone is being temporarily monitored after reasonable reports, that can be understandable.

That there is random monitoring in public worlds, to look for rule breakers or cheaters, that can be understandable.

But looking inside private worlds, this isn't. What happens there is private, it is between the people involved. It is private because people there want to be between themselves without having to be wary about a random stranger or kid or whatever dropping into the world.

That screening of everyone defeats the point of privacy and not being able to know what will be done with those recordings is anything but safe.

Reconsider please.

Include warnings when someone is picked for a random check in a public world, disable this function in private worlds etc etc.

Yeah, I'd like to know when I'm being recorded. I can accept a recording being taken if someone is reported; you need evidence, and it's a tough call to punish someone without a lack of evidence (maybe they got mass reported by bullies or something).

However, when it comes to automated recordings, I feel you need to be more specific about when and where this happens. I can accept being recorded in a public instance, it is a public place after all. But in a friends/invite only instance, I shouldn't be recorded unless there's a very good reason for doing so. Friends only and invite only means those people I want to talk with. If I invite some friends to my house IRL, I don't expect someone to be peeking through the window with a camera. Private is private.

Moderation is hard, I get it, and I appreciate (if this is coming from an honest place) that you want to make the platform safer. However, I feel you should be more clear on when and where these automated recordings are taking place. Otherwise, well.. I just don't feel as safe on this platform, which is the opposite of what you're trying to achieve I think.

EDIT: Just to add a little to this, I think one of my biggest problems it that the ToS is a little vague. I feel some clarifications on when/how recordings are sent would be good. If recordings are only sent upon reports, I can live with that. If recordings are sent also based on behavior and automated systems, that I have a problem with.

I can't do anything but agree 100% with the sentiment of this post. It's understandable that VRChat as a platform has some level of responsibility to keep what happens within it in check: Moderation is hard and implementing a system like this is, whether I like it or not, likely a reasonably effective means to and end.

However, the ToS explicitly stating that this type of automated recording happening outside of public instances is being permitted as well, is in my opinion anything but acceptable. VRChat has to realise that they are not running an equivalent of Call of Duty lobbies here: People are living and breathing their lives in this space, with all the good, the bad, and the ugly, and with that in mind should be entitled to a minimum level of privacy outside of public spaces. VRChat is in my opinion very much overstepping boundaries here. Granting yourself the freedom to intrude on the privacy of users within private contexts is quite frankly a terrible decision.

This should be repealed now and returned to the previous covenant.

Otherwise, I will not renew my VRC+, even though it is a small countermeasure.

What a terrible thing you have done!

The VRC management should be strongly, strongly criticized for making such a terrible change to the VRC+, including requiring the right to see motions, conversations, and videos.

Please repeal this new rule immediately! Now!!!!