I don't think the previous comment is suggesting it is bad. I think they're trying to stave off any "OMG! MS is looking at your porn!" posts, by highlighting the privacy policy of the telemetry; which sound reasonable to most people.
Thank you. I wasn't suggesting it is necessarily bad. It looks like the openness and ease of disabling is being handled much better here than with Win10.
However, the option to disable on install (checkbox prompt for preference) would be much better. This is an improvement over the Win10 approach.
Sorry if I took it the wrong way and jumped the gun too soon.
Microsoft is by no means an example of sainthood, but many in the HN community tend to only criticize it, while closing the eyes to similar actions of companies that are closer at heart.
Yes. It's bad when Microsoft does it this way because it's opt-out. IntelliJ/Android Studio prompts you and asks you your preference first. I think Eclipse is opt-in but could be mistaken.
That’s the recurring debate with opt-in = better for privacy but skewed stats vs. opt-out = more relevant stats but bad for privacy(?).
Homebrew is opt-out post-install by setting a flag as well (no option or warning pre-install). But they do remind you afterwards that they are tracking and give you a link to learn how to disable it.
As long as no data is sent until first use (giving you a buffer to opt-out), I don't have an issue with this.
They are being quite open about it and how to turn it off.