A cloud storage system identifies and creates metadata associated with a stored file. On receiving a request to access the file with an application, the cloud storage system generates a metadata category associated only with the application, and creates metadata associated with the generated metadata category and corresponding to the file. On receiving a request to access file metadata, the cloud storage system identifies an application associated with the metadata access request, identifies a set of metadata categories associated with the identified application, filters metadata associated with the file based on the identified set of metadata categories, and provides the filtered metadata to the application.