Great news. It is beyond me how people are complaining about the free version not allowing to turn off telemetry. Why don't you stick to the paid version if you are bothered by the (anonymous) telemetry?
You aren't a product? Then pay for the products you use instead of asking to get it for free. If they don't give you the option to turn telemetry off in the paid product, then go ahead and complain. But pay for what you get.
? No one asked them to release their software for free. They did it of their own accord.
They don't get to subtly mine value out of their users just because they released free stuff. That's nonsense. We're not obligated to be guinea pigs in their usability experiments.
I get to do all sorts of things. For example, I get to completely firewall their software off of my network. That "take it or leave it" nonsense simply doesn't work on my computer.
Data is not a valid currency by which payments are made. Period.
You're acting like they're gonna go out of business if they can't get their little statistics. Come on now.
There is absolutely no need for me to "prove" anything to anyone. No need whatsoever. It is my computer, and I have decided. It's as simple as that.
Why? Because I don't want it to happen. That's all there is to it. Couldn't care less what their motivations are. Couldn't care less how "justified" they are. I simply do not want data of any kind to be compiled and exfiltrated to anyone for any reason whatsoever, unless I explicitly command my computer to it.
> It’s important to note that, if you’re using a non-commercial license, you cannot opt out of the collection of anonymous usage statistics. We use this information to improve our products.
Same reason responsible technologists warned less-informed users about installing BonziBuddy. It was a free product that told jokes or whatever just as it said it would. It was also spyware.
Responsible technologists should raise the alarm on spyware products because they are harmful toward their users. Malware is often given away for "free" (sometimes even sent to you without you asking!), so it doesn't really make sense to say "well that's the deal". Somehow people seem to be forgetting this over the years (I suspect because a lot more technologists make money from participating in the surveillance/malware economy these days, and it's gotten so bad that some of them have started to think malware distribution and exfiltrating (and often selling) user data is not a thoroughly black-hat activity).
If you're okay with adware or spyware or crypto miners or botnet proxies or whatever else running on your computer as a form of "payment", great. You consider that a reasonable "transaction". Other people appreciate being warned about such behavior. In any case, one shouldn't consider the product to be "free" as advertised.
Gathering user consent is what makes the difference between malware and not. If you click "Yes, upload this crash report" or "Yes, upload stats on what buttons I click", that's the program acting according to your wishes. If the program gathers and transmits that data without you asking or reviewing it and against your wishes, that's malware (i.e. malicious software that causes the computer to undermine its owner). Basically, does the computer obey the owner or not?
