You don't understand the GDPR then. The focus is on controlling where data goes (not out of the EU), but your point is about telemetry in general. If you keep the data inside the EU and manage it in a way that's compliant with the GDPR then then that telemetry doesn't put you in jeopardy.

If you want to be protected for telemetry then you need to advocate for better legislation. Stating that something is covered by the GDPR ultimately masks the issue because it's not against the GDPR and you lose an opportunity to advocate for better legislation to reduce, or kill telemetry.

GDPR is not only about where the data goes, it's also about asking for the user explicit consent for their data collection [0], this is what I was referring to. Not the telemetry collection. I just thought it worked for other stuff than cookies.

https://www.privacyaffairs.com/cookie-consent/

I think that's a good point. Companies are likely going to try to neutralize this by saying that telemetry just being another kind of data that they can make safe by removing PII etc.

Probably so, even though that argument is absurd.

Collecting data is not against GDPR. GDPR is about consent, processes etc.

Whether or not this is compliant depends on the way their installer is set up.

But "default" is precisely not asking for consent. One of the thing GDPR asks, is for websites to explicitly ask for the user permission to allow cookies