Earlier quoted context omitted.
We have a habit of diluting words to the point where they are meaningless, and I think it does more to hurt important causes than support them. By labeling all forms of telemetry as "spying", we just make it so people are less likely to take actual claims of spying seriously.
That is what it once meant. "Spyware" was the term used for any process that called home regarding any information about you, your computer or your usage in the background. Calling home for anything other than "Check for updates" menu items or other actions where calling home was the explicit action the user wanted would get your name tarnished in the media and added to the signature list of software built for the so…
I would call that malware. Telemetry is just malware with a marketing department.