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Have you got a source for the telemetry inside the compiled binary claim?

It was something a specific patch version (of Update 2, iirc) did which was blown way out of proportion. The CRT in that version sent two events on startup and shutdown to the windows event tracing/profiling framework. (Which show up in performance analysis tools like WPA.) People just latched onto the scary name.

To make things even worse (even funnier?), GCC also has something like this, I believe it's this feature: https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Instrumentation-Options.h...

Profiling is not telemetry. Telemetry implies that events are supposed to be transmitted off-site (tele + metry = remote + measuring). Profiling writes a local file with statistics.

http://www.slashdot.org/story/312289

https://www.infoq.com/news/2016/06/visual-cpp-telemetry

Appearently they backed off, due to major outcry. The usual salami tactics.

Nevertheless to this day developers compile binaries with the affected compiler version - still in release builds of various up-to-date software.

Seems you migt want to read this sibling comment:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13974771

Reply on news.ycombinator.com