
VSCode still sends search keystrokes to Microsoft with telemetry disabled - siddhant
https://mstdn.io/@taoeffect/99968111410687610
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Analemma_
Sigh, this again.

Microsoft is very upfront about this. Right on the download page for the
nightly build is this link:
[https://code.visualstudio.com/license/insiders](https://code.visualstudio.com/license/insiders)
and it says

> DATA. The software may collect information about you and your use of the
> software, and send that to Microsoft. Microsoft may use this information to
> provide services and improve our products and services. _For this pre-
> release version, users cannot opt out of data collection._

(emphasis mine)

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indemnity
That’s not a great example of upfront, who reads licenses or license
agreements?

I’ve been using VSCode for more than a year, including pre-release versions
and had no idea this was happening.

If I was asked for consent it was not very clear that keystrokes were included
in the data being sent to Microsoft.

Is this GDPR compliant? I would think not, since you can’t just squirrel
things away in a dense user agreement and claim you’ve met the bar.

~~~
harrygeez
You clearly do not use the nightly version to judge. They literally inform you
this, not hidden in any TOS, like really straight up telling you you can't
disable telemetry on Nightlies. They even told you that you can compile your
own, which will include none of the telemetry

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Guillaume86
Meh, it's just the search in the settings page (see
[https://code.visualstudio.com/blogs/2018/04/25/bing-
settings...](https://code.visualstudio.com/blogs/2018/04/25/bing-settings-
search)), and there's a setting to disable it:
[https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/49161](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/49161)

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Maarten88
I think that with the preview versions of most Microsoft software you get
telemetry that can't be disabled. I guess Microsoft thinks that is a fair
exchange: you get free software to test early, they get test data.

The released versions have less telemetry and opt-in or out that should work.

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bni
As a consumer (not businesses) You pay for Microsoft software with personal
data, that has been clear for a while. See also Windows 10.

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djsumdog
I use Atom quite a bit and I'm now curious if it phones home as well. Guess
it's time to get out Wireshark.

~~~
mindcrash
It does, but only when you opt-in to have telemetry gathered. Introduced in
Atom 1.11:
[https://blog.atom.io/2016/10/11/atom-1-11.html](https://blog.atom.io/2016/10/11/atom-1-11.html)

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opencl
Semi-related but the new Windows update also made it impossible to disable
Bing searches in the Start menu.

~~~
aforty
privacy ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

