Sigh, this again.<p>Microsoft is very upfront about this. Right on the download page for the nightly build is this link: <a href="https://code.visualstudio.com/license/insiders" rel="nofollow">https://code.visualstudio.com/license/insiders</a> and it says<p>> DATA. The software may collect information about you and your use of the software, and send that to Microsoft. Microsoft may use this information to provide services and improve our products and services. <i>For this pre-release version, users cannot opt out of data collection.</i><p>(emphasis mine)
Meh, it's just the search in the settings page (see <a href="https://code.visualstudio.com/blogs/2018/04/25/bing-settings-search" rel="nofollow">https://code.visualstudio.com/blogs/2018/04/25/bing-settings...</a>), and there's a setting to disable it: <a href="https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/49161" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/49161</a>
I think that with the preview versions of most Microsoft software you get telemetry that can't be disabled. I guess Microsoft thinks that is a fair exchange: you get free software to test early, they get test data.<p>The released versions have less telemetry and opt-in or out that should work.