herrbischoff / telemetry

How to disable most data collection happening in your software and on your devices.

Telemetry

Telemetry, statistics, usage data, metrics, engagement, data aggregation — whatever the name, it's about data collection. While there is an understandable desire for companies and developers to better understand their users, lately those collection efforts tipped overboard. They're everywhere. In hardware, software and in real life. To stem the tide a bit, here's a collection of its own. A collection to enable you, the user, to stop the collection of data to the fullest extent possible without resorting to radical steps.

Data collection today is to the future what toxic waste accumulation in decades past is to today. Let's save some environment by reducing digital waste. Experts agree that data is a toxic asset.

You are most welcome to contribute. Just make sure you follow the contribution guidelines for quality content.

Table of Contents

• General
• Applications
  • Visual Studio Code
• Frameworks
  • Gatsby
  • Next.js
  • Nuxt
• Operating Systems
  • macOS
  • Windows
• Package Managers
  • Pkg.jl
  • Windows Package Manager

General

• Little Snitch - Application-level firewall for macOS.
• Pi-hole - DNS-level blocker of trackers, telemetry and other nuisances, very customizable and comes with nice statistics.

Applications

Visual Studio Code

Source for all details below.

Telemetry Reporting

Stops sending telemetry to Microsoft.

"telemetry.enableTelemetry": false,

Crash Reporter

Stops sending crash reports to Microsoft.

"telemetry.enableCrashReporter": false

Extensions

Each extension may be collecting their own usage data and you have to disable them manually per extension.

Search for telemetry in the visual settings editor and uncheck all.

Frameworks

Gatsby

Run

gatsby telemetry --disable

Set environment variable

GATSBY_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1

Source

Next.js

Run

npx next telemetry disable

in project root directory.

Set environment variable

NEXT_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1

Source

Nuxt

Setting telemetry: false in your nuxt.config:

export default {
  telemetry: false
}

Set environment variable

NUXT_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1

Run npx nuxt telemetry disable

npx nuxt telemetry [status|enable|disable] [-g,--global] [dir]

Source

Operating Systems

Only current and supported operating systems are listed here. If no specific version number is given, expect it to be the latest version.

macOS

Open System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Analytics & Improvements and uncheck all boxes.

Windows

Currently, there appears to be no reliable way to opt out of telemetry collected by Microsoft without resorting to extreme measure, which will not be described in this document.

Heads Up

The method detailed below will be ineffective if you use any version other than Windows 10 Enterprise (including LTSB), Education, IoT and Server editions. See explanation at the end.

Registry Method

1. Press WIN + R keys together to open the "Run" dialog box. Type regedit and press Enter. This opens Registry Editor.
2. Go to the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\
3. Create a new key under the Windows key and set its name to DataCollection
4. Create a new DWORD named AllowTelemetry and set the value to 0.
5. Close Registry Editor and restart your computer.

The AllowTelemetry values are as follows:

Value	Description
0	Security only
1	Basic
2	Enhanced
3	Full (Default)

After you do this, you cannot change the telemetry level in Privacy > Feedback & diagnostics via the drop-down menu any more.

However, if you are using Windows 10 (Core/Home) or Windows 10 Pro edition, setting AllowTelemetry to 0 has no effect. Microsoft mentions in the description of the "Allow Telemetry" option in Group Policy Editor that setting the option to 0 - Security on Windows 10 Home or Pro editions is equivalent to setting it to 1 - Basic.

This policy setting determines the amount of diagnostic and usage data reported to Microsoft. A value of 0 will send minimal data to Microsoft. This data includes Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) & Windows Defender data, if enabled, and telemetry client settings. Setting a value of 0 applies to enterprise, EDU, IoT and server devices only. Setting a value of 0 for other devices is equivalent to choosing a value of 1.

Package Managers

Homebrew

Run

brew analytics off

Set environment variable

export HOMEBREW_NO_ANALYTICS=1

Pkg.jl

Edit ~/.julia/servers/pkg.julialang.org/telemetry.toml and add

telemetry = false

Source

Windows Package Manager

Windows Package Manager does not allow to opt out of telemetry.

Source

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.