[tozeur]

Serious question: Why do you care Microsoft (or any company for that matter) collects your code editor telemetry?

Addendum: Check our Google Analytics, Hotjar, and Facebook ad targeting if you _really_ want to see “violation of privacy”. In reality, companies want to know how users use their products to make them better.

[oarsinsync]

I prefer to view it from the other side: Why should anyone collect any telemetry from anything that I use without me explicitly opting in?

When I run into a problem, I will opt in as necessary (usually through the process of providing a stack trace / core dump / diagnostics data as requested). Outside of that, my usage habits are my business and my business alone.

Nobody needs to know how, when, or why I'm using anything without my explicit permission.

Vim/Emacs don't collect telemetry on what I'm doing, both are still great (both included to avoid the holy war).

EDIT: Or rather, why should I have to justify my desire for privacy? Why do I have to setup a series of DMZs, proxies, firewalls, or total disconnection, in order to retain that?

[pdkl95]

If you bought a physical tool that I manufactured. Your need the tool to do your work and switching to something else would be expensive in both time and money due to interoperability problems and lost time.

Do you care if I stand behind you taking notes about how you use the tool in your work? I promise I won't write down your name in my notes. I just want to know how you use my tool in your work. For research purposes. It's not a "violation of privacy"; I wouldn't take notes on what you're working on - I just want to know exactly how you use my tool in your work. I'll even be careful to not get in your way ("most" of the time). I just want to know how you use my tool so I can make it better.

If I did this to you without explicit prior-authorization from you (such as a contract describing what I'm authorized to do), would you allow it? Would you order me to get off your property? Would you call the police to have me arrested for trespassing and possibly corporate espionage?

Making tools out of software instead of steel doesn't grant permission to using someone's property without their explicit permission. Also, unauthorized use of private property is still unauthorized even if your goals are useful. Other companies doing the same bad behavior doesn't justify that behavior; trespassing is still trespassing even when a lot of people are doing it.

[Sylos]

They are completely intransparent about what they collect and legal systems around the world also fail catastrophically at regulating this in any way.

What if they send the data contained in the text files that I open with that text editor? There's partially passwords and such in the files that I edit.

If I knew exactly that all they send is the average size of the files I edit or similar data, I would actually have no problem at all. But Microsoft has proven a lot of times already that what they consider perfectly acceptable telemetry is not in the slightest the same as what I consider acceptable. So, even with something as innocuous as text editor telemetry, I can't trust them to not fuck up and for some reason collect data that I consider sensitive anyways.

[jasonjayr]

There was a movie on this very topic about 17 years ago.

Right down to a thinly veiled character for Microsoft & Bill Gates.

Migel de Icaza even has a cameo.

See "Antitrust" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218817/

[mikro2nd]

> Why do you care Microsoft collects your code editor telemetry?

How about, "Because it's none of their fucking business."

Microsoft has clearly gone all-in on the SV surveillance-capitalism model of doing business, and this is exactly what motivated their acquisition of GitHub imho.