Privacy Policy.

1. Who we are

VPDC — Virtual Photography Discord Community — is an independent community project centered on virtual photography, curation and preservation. The public Gallery is available at vpdcphoto.com.

For privacy questions or requests, contact partnerships@vpdcphoto.com.

2. Information we process

Public Gallery information

When a photograph is curated, VPDC may publish the photographer's chosen credit name, the game title, the curated image, a permanent Gallery number and, where supplied by the photographer, a portfolio link. Source Discord message references and internal identifiers may be retained by Muse for curation and moderation workflows.

Discord sign-in and discussions

If you choose to sign in with Discord to comment, the Gallery receives the limited account information needed for authentication and attribution, such as your Discord user ID, username/display name and avatar where available. VPDC does not receive your Discord password.

Comments

Comments you submit, their timestamps, discussion relationships and the Discord account identifier used to attribute them are stored so the discussion can be displayed and moderated.

Anonymous likes

To protect Gallery like counts from repeated automated or duplicate submissions, the site creates a random anonymous visitor identifier in a secure signed cookie. The server stores a pseudonymous cryptographic digest derived from that identifier for each photograph you like. The raw visitor identifier is not stored in the likes database and the like system is not intended to identify you personally.

Technical information

As with most websites, infrastructure providers may process routine technical information required to deliver and protect the service, such as IP address, request metadata, browser information and security logs.

3. Why we process information

VPDC processes this information only as needed to operate the community Gallery: publishing curated work with attribution, authenticating members, displaying and moderating discussions, maintaining meaningful like counts, protecting the service against abuse, troubleshooting technical issues and preserving the Gallery.

4. Cookies & browser storage

The site may use strictly functional cookies for Discord authentication, OAuth security state and anonymous like integrity. Authentication cookies are marked Secure and HttpOnly where applicable. The Gallery does not use advertising cookies and does not sell personal information.

Older versions of the Gallery used local browser storage to remember a like locally. The current like system is enforced server-side and no longer relies on that browser-only marker.

5. Service providers

VPDC relies on third-party infrastructure to operate the Gallery. These services process information only as necessary to provide their respective functions:

• Discord — community platform and OAuth authentication.
• Cloudflare — domain, Worker, static delivery, D1 database and R2 object storage used by the Gallery.
• Railway — hosting for VPDC Muse and related Gallery automation.

Those providers operate under their own privacy policies and may process data in locations determined by their infrastructure.

6. Retention

Curated Gallery records are intended to be preserved as part of VPDC's photographic archive. Discussion and authentication-related records are retained only while useful for operating or moderating the service. Security logs and provider-level technical records may be retained according to the relevant provider's operational policies.

Anonymous like records may be retained with the corresponding Gallery photograph to preserve like integrity and Community Favorites rankings.

7. Your choices & rights

You may choose not to sign in with Discord and can still browse the public Gallery. If you have published a comment, photographer profile or other information associated with you and want to request access, correction or deletion where applicable, contact VPDC using the address below. Requests may require reasonable verification so information is not altered on behalf of the wrong person.

If you are in the European Economic Area, applicable data-protection law may provide rights including access, correction, erasure, restriction, objection and data portability depending on the circumstances.

8. Children

VPDC does not knowingly operate the Gallery as a service directed at children below the minimum age permitted to use Discord in their country. Discord account eligibility remains governed by Discord's own terms.

9. Changes to this policy

This policy may be updated when VPDC's Gallery features, infrastructure or legal obligations change. The effective date at the top of this page will be updated when material changes are published.

10. Contact

Privacy questions and requests can be sent to partnerships@vpdcphoto.com.

VPDC does not ask for passwords, Discord tokens, backup codes or other authentication secrets through this website.