As a Roblox user who values privacy and anonymity, I’ve noticed that my country/flag/region is sometimes publicly displayed in certain games (e.g., leaderboards, lobbies, nameplates) based on the country Roblox detects from my IP. I understand that region detection is useful for certain aspects and regional restrictions for some countries, however I find it odd that there’s no way to opt out of displaying one’s location.
There is no current setting to hide my country flag or prevent games from displaying my region except for some games that might give you the ability to hide your location/choose a different location (just for visibility—doesn’t actually change your region). The lack for such a basic privacy setting is incompatible with my preference for wanting to be a cool mysterious ninja.
WHY THIS MATTERS;
Anonymity: This is personally my own motive behind requesting such a feature. Players should have the option to avoid broadcasting their location to maintain privacy.
Safety: Some players may feel uncomfortable sharing their nationality in games.
Other platforms already have this: Platforms like Steam, Discord, and Xbox provide users with privacy settings that limit or control the public visibility of location information while still using region data internally for backend functions like matchmaking.
It wouldn’t be inconvenient for Roblox to add this: Roblox already uses region data internally; adding a simple boolean toggle (HideRegion = true) would let developers hide public region displays without disrupting matchmaking or compliance systems.
PROPOSED SOLUTION;
Add a new setting under Privacy Settings: “Hide my country/region from experiences"
Roblox CONTINUES to USE the player’s region for MATCHMAKING, COMPLIANCE, and ANALYTICS.
API methods like LocalizationService:GetCountryRegionForPlayerAsync(player) would return nil or maybe a placeholder (like "Hidden" or "Unknown") to developers for that user.
They could just introduce a setting to override this field, which should solve all of a player’s concerns.
Arguably, in practice, if you’re trying to localize you’d more than likely be using LocalizationService.RobloxLocaleId or Player.LocaleId which are more in the user’s control than a method based off of their IP.
I completely agree with you. Sadly, I can’t use any VPN too since my alternative account got banned for using it. Maybe someone used that IP to break the Roblox TOS, and when I did, the system flagged my alternative account, and now I’m worried to use any VPN. However, this is 100% Roblox’s fault for not adding this in privacy settings. It’s too sad to see them adding chat restrictions but not being able to fix this.
Right? It seems like changes are only made when things are completely out of control. They deem user safety and privacy to be so important, but allow games to completely expose our locations? Where’s the privacy in that?
Maybe I’m missing something here, but how are people using this type of thing outside of localization? Is there some sort of malicious way people are using this? Generally I’d think that regions and nationalities are broad enough that sharing this information wouldn’t constitute a security risk by any means.
It’s not so much a “security risk” as it is that putting someone’s region/country on blast without their consent might paint a target on them that they don’t want. It’s violating their privacy and opening them up to unwarranted harassment based on their region/country.
I mean, this seems like something Roblox should crack down on in terms of moderation rather than limiting developer access to this information. I know Roblox’s moderation hasn’t been the best for a while now, but I don’t think we should be restricting developer access to this information if it is being used for localization purposes. Obviously, you wouldn’t be able to stop people from targetting players in competitive games if this information is displayed, but players target each other for a variety of reasons and there isn’t a great way to determine why one player is targetting another.
The thing that should be used for localization purposes is LocalizationService.SystemLocaleId and Player.LocaleId as I had mentioned previously in the thread because both are in the user’s control and both can be set by the user to the language they actually know, and not the language assumed from their current location.
There’s zero reason for developers to have access to the player’s general location/region without their consent and it should absolutely be something players can opt out of if they aren’t comfortable with a game or developer having that kind of information about them.
Outside of localization purposes, custom matchmaking? It makes sense to pair users in the same region together as they would be closest to the same servers. Again, there’s no reason to be uncomfortable about a game or developer having this information as literally everything you access online has this information. Again, this is not private or sensitive information by any means.
The difference there is all of these other services I use that have this information, I have explicitly consented to their use of and have the security of knowing they are bound to the privacy policies they have supplied which have legal weight.
With random developers having access to this information they could do god knows what with it as there is neither any privacy policy I have consented to nor a clear legal entity I can pursue if they violate my privacy. This is ABSOLUTELY private or sensitive information and should be treated as such when it can be combined with other public information to deanonymize or track someone.
Again, no, this is not something you consent to giving information for: every single website on the internet has access to this information, every single online game has open access to this information, if you are accessing anything using the internet, it has open access to this information regardless of having a privacy policy or something similar.
Again, this is NOT private or sensitive infomation. Every endpoint you access using the internet has this information. You can feel free to attempt to obfuscate this information by IP spoofing or using a proxy, but endpoints will still receive an address (the spoofed/proxy address). This information is still important if developers want to do matchmaking outside of Roblox’s default matchmaking system even if its spoofed/proxied!
If you have someone in Brazil using a VPN to appear in the Netherlands, a server in the Netherlands will be faster for responses to the proxy and then back to the end client rather than a server in Brazil sending packets to Sweden which are then sent back to Brazil for a round trip.
both of these are public information, if you dont want people to know about it then dont put it out there
in what way are either of these a privacy concern? and you can already see if someones focused or not just by looking at them, should we remove our eyes? also getting someones device type is kinda required if you plan on your game being playable
i dont really see how this is an issue, okay some random developer has your country.. other than them learning a fun fact they get nothing out of it. If youre really worried about someone knowing your region or just privacy at all, the internet is not the place for you
You aren’t mistaken. However Privacy = Anonymity, and if a user does not wish to expose their current location to the public, they should be able to keep it hidden.
As stated in the original post:
So it isn’t the concept of completely removing access to a player’s location, because that’s necessary to an extent. It’s more so to do with games showcasing flags / country names / etc. (which realistically have no other purpose than to plaster your location- putting a person’s location’s flag next to their name adds nothing to the experience, and especially when you don’t want that kind of information shared, you’re forced to leave the experience / use a VPN).
It might not seem like such a big deal to you and that’s fine, but it also wouldn’t be inconvenient for Roblox to add a feature that overrides region-showcasing in games. Numerous users value their anonymity, and it comes with no surprise that they value it especially during our current times with every corporation adamant about invading privacy and selling data. A simple toggle to hide region visibility isn’t hard to implement, and makes players feel much safer on a wider scope.
This is not true. Countless times I have seen people face racist remarks simply because their region was shown against their will. It goes beyond “fun facts” and enters bullying.
In my game, I only have one’s country and language visible to moderators and myself. I use it to help players in their native language, if they otherwise seem too shy to chat.
I do 100% agree that this information should not be exposed to everyone, especially without their permission. Maybe Roblox will make that a rule at some point.
No, its still only a fun fact, its not like they see your region and gain racism, like they were racist to begin with so they only got a fun fact. Also 1, no ones doing that. 2, people do that with skintones on peoples avatars and just avatars in general and ive seen it happen because of the language someone spoke in chat, should we just hide avatars? hide chat?(well ig we dont have to really worry about this one, but you get the idea)
If they were racist to begin with, and your location wasn’t shown to them, they’d have nothing to say to you. But if your location is exposed, then it instigates their racism and they act upon it and call you racial slurs. Simple logic.
until you realize that region isnt the only thing that gives it away, which is why i brought up language in chat and avatars. Also if someones going out of their way to be racist to someone on here do you really think that theyll be like “welp i cant see peoples regions, guess i cant be racist anymore” ??
