Advice Request Should you allow telemetry?

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Companies build software products. They release said software products into the wild. People start using them, and sometimes, there be problems. But how can companies really know that their products are working as expected? User interaction? Unreliable. Some form of automated mechanism that tracks software usage and reports data back? Yes.

Software telemetry is a relatively transparent way of collecting data about human-software interactions, with the noble goal of improving software products. Alas, if only the reality was so cuddly and naive. As it happens, humans quickly realized that data collected in this manner can be used for more than just improvements in the product. And thus, overnight, a noble goal became ignoble. So the question is, should you, as an end user, allow, encourage or accept telemetry in the software you use?

Best quote in this article:

The longer the data exists out there, the probability of it being leaked out approaches one.

Read the full article here at Dedoimedo:

Should you allow telemetry?

Article discussing the pros and cons of data telemetry in software products, including functional and financial objectives, indirect and direct data analysis, personal and non-personal data, privacy implications, data leaks, product quality, and more

www.dedoimedo.com

 

[oldschool]

Even Dedoimedo has Chrome installed on his PC! Who whudda' thought?

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Even Dedoimedo has Chrome installed on his PC! Who whudda' thought?

Where did you see that?

 

[plat]

A nice and thoughtfully-written article.

Really, it makes it clear that data telemetry is (partly) a sort of payment for your using the free (or even paid) version of a software. If one uses a browser specifically, there's no way to avoid it, maybe only to put a ding in the mechanism with various tools like O&O, ad-blockers, etc (you hope).

I don't find "telemetry" to be a dirty word at all in some contexts. I've seen the benefits of it too many times while running Insider builds. Thanks to Microsoft-deployed DISM, my current Windows system has never been more stable. It's just that the line between "benefit" and "greed" as he stated is often blurred and difficult to distinguish in everyday user life.

 

[TairikuOkami]

I used to hate telemetry, I duct taped camera, microphone, windows and refused to open strangers, post men included. But those times are long gone. As I started to easy down, I understood, that if you want something, in terms of features, you have to give something. Like I faced a choice: Shall I allow search suggestions in Edge?! I could privately type, what I want, but then it would cost me a previous time. So it all comes down to, what you want and if it is worth giving up some privacy in return. For an example:

 

[oldschool]

Where did you see that?

Windows 10 version 2004 review - Okay, sort of

Review of Windows 10 Build 2004, including in-vivo upgrade and its associated changes and errors, privacy settings, security settings, system theme customization, application compatibility, stability, performance, various problems, and more

www.dedoimedo.com