I'd say the opposite. Consider that (a) you typically visit websites briefly and periodically while most vscode users have it open as long as their computer is on, and (b) Electron provides access to lot more device data than the browser sandbox. The reason websites tend to have such far-reaching and devious user-tracking methods is because they're working in such a restricted environment and have to innovate; native desktop apps have far less restrictions.

So, regardless of what they're able to collect, I know what they are collecting, and how personally identifiable it is, and I know that it's pretty tame compared to what I've seen elsewhere.

It could be that MS fixed the issue since, and the connections I see in logs now are from extensions, but I also presume this isn't the case as my firewall rules are IP-based rather than purely app based (since the latter would kill the market browsing functionality).

I'm curious what would happen if a moderate-size country (say, Belgium) were to pass a law saying that telemetry must be opt-in. I bet it would convince everyone to just be universal opt-in for simplicity's sake.

That said, I bet it's still nothing compared to the level of data collection that a typical website does these days.

I block most of it anyway, with a couple of individual exceptions, but other than those examples mentioned above, there's also:

- dc.services.visualstudio.com (40.114.241.141, 52.169.64.244)

- vortex.data.microsoft.com (40.77.226.250, 65.55.44.109, 51.141.13.164, 51.140.40.236)

- bingsettingssearch.trafficmanager.net (13.95.93.152)

I actually have no clue what the last one there is (Bing)—I must have known at some point, but have long forgotten.

Notable exceptions allowed: marketplace.visualstudio.com (13.107.6.175, 191.238.172.191, 13.85.19.92)

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