The telemetry data content in Visual Studio Code

Question

Good morning!

I have two questions:

1. There is a setting in Visual Studio Code:

Telemetry Level in VS Code to be set to "all" ("telemetry.telemetryLevel" to "all").

Can you please describe in detail what statistics exactly are being collected, when this option is turned on? Especially regarding sensitive data, related to users and their actions. Are these data pseudonymized? Can it be considered as "Usage monitoring" in terms of Works Council? Can this telemetry be used in companies according to GDPR?

2. Can this option be “locked” / “grayed out”, when we are preparing the package for our users? After we set the option in the desired value, can we lock it in, so that the users cannot change it themselves manually after the package has been deployed with the predefined setting for this option. Is the functionality of “locking” settings included in the application? Is it technically possible, and if yes - how exactly is it done (which files contain the “switch" to lock and unlock setting access)?

Thank you for your help.

Best regards,

Vadim Onufriev

Answer 1

1. When the telemetry level in Visual Studio Code is set to "all," the telemetry feature collects various usage statistics. However, it does not collect personal data such as usernames or email addresses, nor does it scan your code or extract project-level data like repository names or authors. The data collected includes telemetry events such as the command line used, the time of invocation, and execution duration. This data is sent securely to Microsoft servers and is held under restricted access. The telemetry does not include sensitive data, and the collected data is not associated with identifiable user information, which means it can be considered pseudonymized. Regarding GDPR compliance, organizations must assess their specific use cases and ensure that any telemetry data collection aligns with their data protection obligations, including obtaining necessary consents from users.
2. Visual Studio Code does not natively include functionality to lock or gray out settings such as telemetry options for users. While you can set the telemetry level in a predefined configuration, there is no built-in mechanism to prevent users from changing this setting after deployment. Any attempts to enforce such restrictions would require custom solutions or modifications to the deployment process, which are not standard features of Visual Studio Code. Therefore, if you need to enforce specific settings, you may need to explore third-party tools or create a custom extension that manages settings more strictly.

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References:

• Visual Studio Family Data Subject Requests for the GDPR and CCPA
• vcpkg Telemetry and Privacy