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VSCodium – An Open Source Visual Studio Code Without Trackers

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Re: VSCodium – An Open Source Visual Studio Code Without Trackers

#31
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it is - tracking that you have to opt-out of is evil (regardless of how well intentioned the tracking is).

But how do the PMs at Microsoft figure out new features without user data?

How did anyone write software for decades before everything was connected to the internet?

Re: VSCodium – An Open Source Visual Studio Code Without Trackers

#32
post #3

Is this needed? You can disable telemetry from the settings: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/supporting/FAQ#_how-to-di...

This has been an issue in the past: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/16131

Telemetry not being disabled I have disabled telemetry as described in the FAQ. I have set the following properties in the settings: [..] Now despite of this, when I log my network traffic (with Wireshark) I can see that Visual Studio Code periodically contacts vortex.data.microsoft.com.

For the record,

Even with: [..] I still see connection attempts by Visual Studio Code to marketplace.visualstudio.com and vortex.data.microsoft.com at startup.

Response is: I'm pretty sure we [VS Code Core] are doing the right thing here and we would love any pointers (all code is OSS).

Which almost sounds like a complete deflection of the issue. The ticket was locked.

Re: VSCodium – An Open Source Visual Studio Code Without Trackers

#33
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But how do the PMs at Microsoft figure out new features without user data?

How did anyone write software for decades before everything was connected to the internet?

Less effectively and at greater expense (with regards to understanding how large swathes of your userbase use your software in practice)

Re: VSCodium – An Open Source Visual Studio Code Without Trackers

#34
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But how do the PMs at Microsoft figure out new features without user data?

How did anyone write software for decades before everything was connected to the internet?

That's a different question. It's about feedback on what to improve, not about writing software.

Re: VSCodium – An Open Source Visual Studio Code Without Trackers

#35
post #3

Is this needed? You can disable telemetry from the settings: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/supporting/FAQ#_how-to-di...

According to their docs, even VSCodium doesn't get all the telemetry out.

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

Re: VSCodium – An Open Source Visual Studio Code Without Trackers

#36
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It maybe starts with simple statistics. But then you want to know what features the user use, then you want to know what other programs they have installed. Then you want to know what the users search for on the web. etc. It's a slippery slope.

It's a shame we have to assume the worst. What would be better is for Microsoft to be more transparent about the telemetry and to enable more granular control. That said, I wouldn't bother checking as I don't really care. I rub shoulders with infosec issues daily, as most IT folk do these days. When I think about the perceived risk of telemetry from VSCode, now and in the future it's a negligible risk that I accept.

They are actually very transparent about the telemetry they collect, and they offer granular control. There is a log of all events sent to MS, and a page in settings dedicated to the different types of telemetry they can be enabled.

Re: VSCodium – An Open Source Visual Studio Code Without Trackers

#37
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've literally described a slippery slope fallacy

"Slippery slope" is not a fallacy. Life is full of slippery slopes in terms of behavior.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope#Non-fallacious_...

No, that still falls into fallacious usage.

The user doesn't justify why the steps of their assertion follow after the other. Just that they... do.

Re: VSCodium – An Open Source Visual Studio Code Without Trackers

#38
post #24

I suspect the tracking in VSCode is mainly used to improve the product. It's probably in my best interest, and the interest of the community as a whole to leave tracking on. I mean, I get it, HN is usually a more skeptical and security-focused crowd. At the same time, it's likely MS will just take that information and tailor their bugfixes and features to the things I need most, so by all means I want them to have it…

I'm ok with until its get used to improve the editor. It would much better if they can share the data they are collecting.

You can view a real time log of all telemetry events in-editor. Or do you mean you’d like them to share with you all he telemetry from all their users?

Re: VSCodium – An Open Source Visual Studio Code Without Trackers

#40

Isn't the use of the vscode store extensions proprietary?

It is, but people try to get away with it by using a mistakenly committed config file from a few years back to argue that the URL’s are now MIT’d.

The commit was quickly reverted, but they didn’t rewrite history to totally remove it, and now here we are.

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