4 ms·

Doesn't it suffice to set the following in your User Settings? "telemetry.enableTelemetry": false Honestly I'm very happy to give telemetry data. Microsof

by carlmr 8y ago

Doesn't it suffice to set the following in your User Settings? "telemetry.enableTelemetry": false Honestly I'm very happy to give telemetry data. Microsoft is doing so much to improve the experience, they can make it better with some data.

lucideer 8y ago
This doesn't suffice unfortunately. That setting has worked inconsistently, or not at all, and add far as I've seen in my own testing it never disables all telemetry. There have been issues open on GitHub about this for a long time, though it's a few months since I checked there for updates (I stopped bothering and just put it in my firewall rules; I still see blocked connections in thy log today). I'm a very happy vscode user, but this is one antifeature does continue to bother me.
- bunderbunder 8y ago
  It really is annoying that they don't make it opt-in instead. They've got plenty of users; I can't imagine they need to be collecting usage statistics from everyone. I'm curious what would happen if a moderate-size country (say, Belgium) were to pass a law saying that telemetry must be opt-in. I bet it would convince everyone to just be universal opt-in for simplicity's sake. That said, I bet it's still nothing compared to the level of data collection that a typical website does these days.
- lucideer 8y ago
  > @bunderbunder I bet it's still nothing compared to the level of data collection that a typical website does these days. I'd say the opposite. Consider that (a) you typically visit websites briefly and periodically while most vscode users have it open as long as their computer is on, and (b) Electron provides access to lot more device data than the browser sandbox. The reason websites tend to have such far-reaching and devious user-tracking methods is because they're working in such a restricted environment and have to innovate; native desktop apps have far less restrictions.
  - bunderbunder 8y ago
    Another big difference, though, is that VSCode's telemetry is publicly documented. So, regardless of what they're able to collect, I know what they are collecting, and how personally identifiable it is, and I know that it's pretty tame compared to what I've seen elsewhere.
    - lucideer 8y ago
      Ah, that is a fair point. I hadn't looked at what they collect, I was just speculating about what they could collect if desired.
- nathantotten 8y ago
  Are you sure the additional telemetry isn’t from extensions? Our extensions (Salesforce) have our own telemetry setting, but we do also respect the global VSCode setting due to this exact possibility of confusion. However, I know that there are other extensions that dont respect the global setting.
  - lucideer 8y ago
    I tested without extensions back when I was following the open GH issues, so that wasn't the case then. It could be that MS fixed the issue since, and the connections I see in logs now are from extensions, but I also presume this isn't the case as my firewall rules are IP-based rather than purely app based (since the latter would kill the market browsing functionality).
- nsomaru 8y ago
  Can you share the firewall rules/domains to block to disable telemetry for VSCode?
  - lucideer 8y ago
    There's a lot of traffic that comes from VSCode, so it's sometimes hard to tell which is which—e.g. the autoupdate checker, and the "Code Helper" queries to schemastore to get JSON validation configs for the JSON files in your project, and the NPM queries for package.json I block most of it anyway, with a couple of individual exceptions, but other than those examples mentioned above, there's also: - dc.services.visualstudio.com (40.114.241.141, 52.169.64.244) - vortex.data.microsoft.com (40.77.226.250, 65.55.44.109, 51.141.13.164, 51.140.40.236) - bingsettingssearch.trafficmanager.net (13.95.93.152) I actually have no clue what the last one there is (Bing)—I must have known at some point, but have long forgotten. Notable exceptions allowed: marketplace.visualstudio.com (13.107.6.175, 191.238.172.191, 13.85.19.92)
    - Iwan-Zotow 8y ago
      > I actually have no clue what the last one there is (Bing) workbench.settings.enableNaturalLanguageSearch
- yuhong 8y ago
  There used to be at least one issue about this, and of course it has been fixed by now: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/16131 https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/16131
jolan 8y ago
If you want to send as little data as possible to Microsoft there are other settings to consider: "telemetry.enableCrashReporter": false, "code-runner.enableAppInsights": false, "update.channel": "none", "extensions.autoUpdate": false, "extensions.ignoreRecommendations": true, "workbench.settings.enableNaturalLanguageSearch": false
- codedokode 8y ago
  What stops Microsoft from adding new settings tomorrow?
  - pritambaral 8y ago
    Or from re-enabling disabled settings with an update, like they've done with Windows 10.
    - GordonS 8y ago
      They are different products, different teams, different target markets - I've been using VSCode since it was first released, and they haven't done any anything scummy in that time, or given me any reason to distrust them or their motives. All they've done is provide a great product that I love. The VSCode team is responsive on GitHub, and are driving development based on the feedback and telemetry they receive. I really am a staunch privacy advocate, but I'm not dogmatic about it - telemetry has it's place. It can also easily be disabled if you don't want to send it. Honestly, I don't see the point of this 'fork'.
      - fredsanford 8y ago
        >> ... Honestly, I don't see the point of this 'fork'. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -- George Santayana https://bigthink.com/the-proverbial-skeptic/those-who-do-not-learn-history-doomed-to-repeat-it-really https://bigthink.com/the-proverbial-skeptic/those-who-do-not...
ekianjo 8y ago
Telemetry should not be on by default without express user consent.
- ectospheno 8y ago
  It is only without express user consent for those who enter into contracts without reading them. Assuming you aren't one of those people then you consented.
  - scbrg 8y ago
    What do you mean? Just to see what you were talking about, I downloaded VSCode from their official website, installed and started it. At no point was I (to their credit) presented with a "contract". OTOH, there was (again, to their credit), a notification when I started the software about how to disable telemetry.

by carlmr 8y ago

lucideer 8y ago

This doesn't suffice unfortunately. That setting has worked inconsistently, or not at all, and add far as I've seen in my own testing it never disables all telemetry. There have been issues open on GitHub about this for a long time, though it's a few months since I checked there for updates (I stopped bothering and just put it in my firewall rules; I still see blocked connections in thy log today). I'm a very happy vscode user, but this is one antifeature does continue to bother me.

bunderbunder 8y ago
It really is annoying that they don't make it opt-in instead. They've got plenty of users; I can't imagine they need to be collecting usage statistics from everyone. I'm curious what would happen if a moderate-size country (say, Belgium) were to pass a law saying that telemetry must be opt-in. I bet it would convince everyone to just be universal opt-in for simplicity's sake. That said, I bet it's still nothing compared to the level of data collection that a typical website does these days.
lucideer 8y ago
> @bunderbunder I bet it's still nothing compared to the level of data collection that a typical website does these days. I'd say the opposite. Consider that (a) you typically visit websites briefly and periodically while most vscode users have it open as long as their computer is on, and (b) Electron provides access to lot more device data than the browser sandbox. The reason websites tend to have such far-reaching and devious user-tracking methods is because they're working in such a restricted environment and have to innovate; native desktop apps have far less restrictions.
- bunderbunder 8y ago
  Another big difference, though, is that VSCode's telemetry is publicly documented. So, regardless of what they're able to collect, I know what they are collecting, and how personally identifiable it is, and I know that it's pretty tame compared to what I've seen elsewhere.
  - lucideer 8y ago
    Ah, that is a fair point. I hadn't looked at what they collect, I was just speculating about what they could collect if desired.
nathantotten 8y ago
Are you sure the additional telemetry isn’t from extensions? Our extensions (Salesforce) have our own telemetry setting, but we do also respect the global VSCode setting due to this exact possibility of confusion. However, I know that there are other extensions that dont respect the global setting.
- lucideer 8y ago
  I tested without extensions back when I was following the open GH issues, so that wasn't the case then. It could be that MS fixed the issue since, and the connections I see in logs now are from extensions, but I also presume this isn't the case as my firewall rules are IP-based rather than purely app based (since the latter would kill the market browsing functionality).
nsomaru 8y ago
Can you share the firewall rules/domains to block to disable telemetry for VSCode?
- lucideer 8y ago
  There's a lot of traffic that comes from VSCode, so it's sometimes hard to tell which is which—e.g. the autoupdate checker, and the "Code Helper" queries to schemastore to get JSON validation configs for the JSON files in your project, and the NPM queries for package.json I block most of it anyway, with a couple of individual exceptions, but other than those examples mentioned above, there's also: - dc.services.visualstudio.com (40.114.241.141, 52.169.64.244) - vortex.data.microsoft.com (40.77.226.250, 65.55.44.109, 51.141.13.164, 51.140.40.236) - bingsettingssearch.trafficmanager.net (13.95.93.152) I actually have no clue what the last one there is (Bing)—I must have known at some point, but have long forgotten. Notable exceptions allowed: marketplace.visualstudio.com (13.107.6.175, 191.238.172.191, 13.85.19.92)
  - Iwan-Zotow 8y ago
    > I actually have no clue what the last one there is (Bing) workbench.settings.enableNaturalLanguageSearch
yuhong 8y ago
There used to be at least one issue about this, and of course it has been fixed by now: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/16131 https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/16131

jolan 8y ago

If you want to send as little data as possible to Microsoft there are other settings to consider: "telemetry.enableCrashReporter": false, "code-runner.enableAppInsights": false, "update.channel": "none", "extensions.autoUpdate": false, "extensions.ignoreRecommendations": true, "workbench.settings.enableNaturalLanguageSearch": false

codedokode 8y ago
What stops Microsoft from adding new settings tomorrow?
- pritambaral 8y ago
  Or from re-enabling disabled settings with an update, like they've done with Windows 10.
  - GordonS 8y ago
    They are different products, different teams, different target markets - I've been using VSCode since it was first released, and they haven't done any anything scummy in that time, or given me any reason to distrust them or their motives. All they've done is provide a great product that I love. The VSCode team is responsive on GitHub, and are driving development based on the feedback and telemetry they receive. I really am a staunch privacy advocate, but I'm not dogmatic about it - telemetry has it's place. It can also easily be disabled if you don't want to send it. Honestly, I don't see the point of this 'fork'.
    - fredsanford 8y ago
      >> ... Honestly, I don't see the point of this 'fork'. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -- George Santayana https://bigthink.com/the-proverbial-skeptic/those-who-do-not-learn-history-doomed-to-repeat-it-really https://bigthink.com/the-proverbial-skeptic/those-who-do-not...

ekianjo 8y ago

Telemetry should not be on by default without express user consent.

ectospheno 8y ago
It is only without express user consent for those who enter into contracts without reading them. Assuming you aren't one of those people then you consented.
- scbrg 8y ago
  What do you mean? Just to see what you were talking about, I downloaded VSCode from their official website, installed and started it. At no point was I (to their credit) presented with a "contract". OTOH, there was (again, to their credit), a notification when I started the software about how to disable telemetry.