4 ms·
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.
by nathanaldensr 4y ago
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 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"
}
- csmattryder 4y agoHa, 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 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30865152
- RealStickman_ 4y agoI'll recommend VS Codium instead of VS Code then. It provides fully open source binaries of VS Code without all the telemetry enabled.
- Tijdreiziger 4y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32571867 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32571867
- JohnFen 4y agoTFA says that VS Codium removes as much as it can, but it cannot remove all of the telemetry.
- tjoff 4y agoJust 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.
- rcxdude 4y agoIf the message is to be believed (and the source code does agree: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/blob/d32b92bd7a49ce8667b954d86320cc29545fc505/src/vs/platform/telemetry/common/telemetryUtils.ts#L125 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 4y ago> @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 4y agoIf only there was some typing system that could help with this.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- fariszr 4y agoOr 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 https://open-vsx.org, an open source host for VSX plugins. https://vscodium.com/ https://vscodium.com/
- westurner 4y agoHere's open-vsx's page for the Microsoft/vscode-jupyter extension: https://open-vsx.org/extension/ms-toolsai/jupyter 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 4y ago> 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 https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/blob/master/DOCS.md
- 1MachineElf 4y agoThe 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 4y agoI mean that's the same deal with browser extensions. Good to mention, but hardly a surprise.
- 4y ago
- systemvoltage 4y agoFuthermore, 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.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]