On: VS Code – What's the deal with the telemetry?

[nathanaldensr]

A warning for people who, like me, long ago disabled telemetry in Visual Studio Code: Microsoft introduced a new setting that deprecates the two older settings... and the new setting defaults to "all"[1]. I just noticed this now after double-checking my settings. Sneaky, sneaky, Microsoft (but still totally expected).

[1] https://imgur.com/a/RbrsuyA

You will want these three settings in your default settings JSON (the first two just to be safe):

    {
      "telemetry.enableTelemetry": false,
      "telemetry.enableCrashReporter": false,
      "telemetry.telemetryLevel": "off"
    }

[rcxdude → nathanaldensr]

If the message is to be believed (and the source code does agree: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/blob/d32b92bd7a49ce8667b...), the old settings still apply, the new one may default to 'all' but the old settings will override it, so they've avoided turning telemetry back on for those who had disabled it (in fact if you didn't update the settings and for some reason had only turned off one of the telemetry options, they have in fact reduced the amount of telemetry they are getting from you).

[alberth → rcxdude]

> @returns OFF, ERROR, ON

> ...

> return TelemetryLevel.NONE;

You gotta love how the documented function return value (TelemetryConfiguration.OFF) doesn't match the actual return value (TelemetryConfiguration.NONE).

[solardev → alberth]

If only there was some typing system that could help with this.

[csmattryder → nathanaldensr]

Ha, vindication. I posted a while back about I used to use OpenSnitch to block VS Code's telemetry requests.

One of the comments mentioned that there's already a setting to disable it, ain't that enough..?!

I'm once again recommending OpenSnitch: because Microsoft won't take "No" for an answer.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30865152

[RealStickman_ → csmattryder]

I'll recommend VS Codium instead of VS Code then. It provides fully open source binaries of VS Code without all the telemetry enabled.

[JohnFen → RealStickman_]

TFA says that VS Codium removes as much as it can, but it cannot remove all of the telemetry.

[Tijdreiziger → RealStickman_]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32571867

[fariszr → nathanaldensr]

Or just use VSCodium, the actually open source build, with no added closed source blobs and of course no telemetry.

It uses https://open-vsx.org, an open source host for VSX plugins.

https://vscodium.com/

[1MachineElf → fariszr]

The end of the article mentions that VS Codium, while having less telemetry, still calls out to Microsoft services.

They try to remove all telemetry, read more about that here.

...

However, VSCodium can’t shut out all the data collection as it is the same codebase. And since extensions act independently with regard to data collection, you still need to be mindful of what extensions you install.

[joecool1029 → 1MachineElf]

I mean that's the same deal with browser extensions. Good to mention, but hardly a surprise.

[tjoff → joecool1029]

Sure, but in my opionion at least browser extensions are minor niceties that isn't worth installing whereas vscode extensions are integral to the use of vscode.

Vscode as an IDE is quite useless without it's extensions. And that includes official(?) extensions from Microsoft that also might have other policies regarding tracking.

[westurner → fariszr]

Here's open-vsx's page for the Microsoft/vscode-jupyter extension: https://open-vsx.org/extension/ms-toolsai/jupyter

I think it's great that open license terms enable these sorts of forks and experiments so that the community can work together by sending pull requests.

Is there a good way to install code-server (hosted VSCode/vscodium in a browser tab) plugins from openvsx?

(E.g. the ml-workspace and ml-hub containers include code-server and SSH, which should be remotely-usable from vscodium?)

[Tijdreiziger → fariszr]

> Even though we do not pass the telemetry build flags (and go out of our way to cripple the baked-in telemetry), Microsoft will still track usage by default.

source: https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/blob/master/DOCS.md

[tjoff → nathanaldensr]

Just as showing ads to people willing to pay to not see ads is supposedly the most lucrative thing humans can envision (not sure how royally pissing off your users is profitable but hey, that's me) it seems that tracking people that don't want to be tracked reveals the most precious data imaginable.

[systemvoltage → nathanaldensr]

Futhermore, by the time humans react and disable the telemetry, things like system information and non-real time telemetry is already uploaded to Microsoft.

The case that we allow users to control privacy needs to be scrutinized more.