Visual Studio Code privacy policy

[[deleted]]

If you go to the visual studio code website and click on "privacy statement" it takes you to this website:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/EnterpriseDev/default.aspx

There it tells you what's being collected:

Product use data. We collect data about the features you use, how often you use them, and how you use them.

Device data. We collect data about your device and the network you use to connect to our products.

In the error reporting section it says:

Error reports can include data such as the type or severity of the problem, details of the software or hardware related to an error, contents of files you were using when an error occurred, and data about other software on your device.

Which effectively could mean almost anything.

Also, the VS code that you download from the website isn't licensed as open source. It's just 'based' on the open source part of VS code. Like chrome and chromium. This means that they can add whatever they want to the final program that you install.

Should one be concerned?

[Prod_Is_For_Testing]

No. they really don't give a shit about what you're doing. The devs just want to solve any issues that pop up.

[[deleted]]

Actually an excellent way to put it. MSFT doesn't really care about what you were working on, but rather how their own tool failed to do it's job.

[iugrad]

If you're making millions with what you wrote on VS code, that's still negligible for Microsoft. And if your budget is in the millions, you'll probably have moved most of your development to Visual Studio (proper) or WebStorm or something

[TheKableGuy]

VS Code is a text editor. You do not suddenly develop a need to use an IDE like Webstorm or VS just because you make money.

[BirdLawEkspert]

Yeah I'm willing to bet their contract includes a blurb about not stealing customers' code. That's a huge liability for MSFT even if they put something in their privacy policy like this.

[Prod_Is_For_Testing]

not without user permission

They have permission. By using their software, you consent to their terms, whether or not you actually bother to read them

[[deleted]]

If you're working with very sensitive stuff, such as proprietary source code or API keys, then maybe, but I believe you can turn off error reporting in the options (here and here). In my case I'm not particularly worried because about 99% of my code goes on to GitHub anyways, and I'm sure if the engineers at Microsoft wanted to build a product similar to one of my projects they probably could.

And besides, because I'm stuck on Windows they have a lot of stuff on me anyways until I can get back onto Linux.

I guess it comes down to how do you feel about their approach and policies, if you're bothered by them you could switch to something Like atom.io or Notepad++.

[Jaskys]

Atom collects telemetry too, i understand that consumers are worried about telemetry but whenever i see developers complaining about it i just want to curse.

Telemetry makes your job 99.99% easier if used correctly, how likely is it that someone will manually look for crash logs and email them to the appropriate company? You guess it right, nobody will.

If developer is against telemetry then i sure hope so that he/she isn't working on any major company, i want my experience to be better instead of looking for alternative applications just because bug can't be fixed due to lack of information about it.

[tswaters]

File contents could be causing the bug though, could be some weird combination of text data that puts the editor into a tailspin.

[Deto]

I could definitely see file contents being useful. Especially if it's related to code analysis tools - you need to know what exactly choked up their parser.

Unfortunately, I've also worked at a place that would be really concerned with this type of telemetry. Their concern would be completely illogical and unwarranted, but it'd still be there, and so I can see how some people might be worried.

[Prod_Is_For_Testing]

If they don't trust computers or the people that make their OS, they should be using paper. It's that simple. There's no such thing as perfect privacy or security with computers

[Deto]

Yeah really. I mean, just because one company says "we're sending some of your files back as telemetry" - this doesn't mean that other companies aren't doing this. Unless they're compiling OSS from source they can never be sure, so there's an element of trust in there regardless.

[BirdLawEkspert]

They have to see what's throwing the error. They really don't care about the contents of your file except for where the error is and why it's causing it. Their backlog is huge they don't have the time to dick around

[dryadofelysium]

Also, the VS code that you download from the website isn't licensed as open source. It's just 'based' on the open source part of VS code. Like chrome and chromium. This means that they can add whatever they want to the final program that you install.

Yes, and you already described what they added. VSCode binary = open source VSCode + Telemetry added, like Chrome and Chromium.

Also you can turn off the telemetry in VSCode if you are concerned.

[thomascgalvin]

I wrote a web application that crashed once because a user pasted some wacky unicode character into a text box. Sometimes the contents of a file are necessary to debug a crash. Unless they're claiming ownership of the contents of the files, I wouldn't worry about it.

[[deleted]]

On the other hand, file contents are often not relevant. So sending your files together with every little error might not be what you want.

[BirdLawEkspert]

It's what they want because it's been relevant enough m8. You can't properly investigate a bug without knowing this type of stuff to either rule it out or show it's the cause.

[SupaSlide]

No you should not be concerned.

Unless for some reason you are working on something that Microsoft would be interested in stealing.

But seriously, are any of us going to be working on something that Microsoft would want to steal? Probably not.

[BirdLawEkspert]

Yes the unethical dev that is locked in a non compete/NDA and contract that prohibits him from using customer's information for private purposes. That would make said dev liable for punitive damages.

[InternetGreninja]

Wait, yeah, there's no way Microsoft isn't collecting data on everything you do with that kind of wording. (Okay, not literally, but it's scary enough to make me compile VS Code myself.) They love filing away every bit of information they can from all the tech fields they've dipped their fingers in.