Telemetry isn't the same thing as spying on user data. You should read below if you are not clear about the differences:
What is telemetry data?
Telemetry is anonymous, aggregated usage data that helps developers understand how a product is being used. It usually includes stuff like:
- What features are being used (e.g. “X% of users use the terminal panel daily”)
- How often the app crashes, and where
- Performance stats (e.g. memory usage, load times)
- Environment info (like OS version, screen resolution — not personal files)
It does NOT include your source code, files, passwords, browser content, or any personal identifiers unless explicitly stated. And in most reputable products, it’s either anonymized or pseudonymized by default.
Who uses telemetry? Everyone.
- VS Code collects telemetry to improve editor performance and user experience. For products that are vscode fork, they inherit the vscode telemetry switch by default.
- Chrome uses telemetry to understand browser performance, crashes, and feature adoption, -Slack, Discord, Postman all rely on telemetry to debug, prioritize features, and improve product quality
Without telemetry, you can’t know which features are working, where users are getting stuck and what’s actually causing bugs.
So when people say “telemetry = privacy breach,” they’re confusing helpful system analytics with data exploitation. The real concern should be around what is collected, how it’s stored, and whether users can opt out — not the mere existence of telemetry data itself.
Telemetry data itself doesn’t directly cause high CPU usage. CPU hog could cause by a lot of different reasons.
Sharing here just because some reasonings and arguments in the original post seems off. Don’t want people to get confused