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Visual Studio 2015 C++ Compiler Secretly Inserts Telemetry Code Into Binaries (infoq.com)
Reader edxwelch writes: Reddit user sammiesdog discovered recently that Visual Studio 2015 C++ compiler was inserting calls to a Microsoft telemetry function into binaries. "I compiled a simple program with only main(). When looking at the compiled binary in IDA, I see a call for telemetry_main_invoke_trigger and telemetry_main_return_trigger. I cannot find documentation for these calls, either on the web or in the options page," he wrote. Only after the discovery did Steve Carroll, the dev manager for Visual C++ admit to the "feature" and posted a workaround to remove it.A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the existence of this behavior to InfoQ, adding that the company wil be removing it in a future preview build. For those who wish to get rid of it, the blog writes: Users who have a copy of VS2015 Update 2 and wish to turn off the telemetry functionality currently being compiled into their code should add notelemetry.obj to their linker command line.
Its not to their benefit, its the developer's benefit. It tracks time and memory usage, some nice tools in VS 2015.
Example... put a couple breakpoints in code. Stop at one, continue to next, it will tell you how long it took to get to second break from first one. Give a running total on right of memory usage as well.
Don't like it, turn it off. I would bet it gets turned off in release mode anyways (I didn't check though). None of it is secret, they are literally bragging about doing this every chance they get.
Wow, MS is sending the Shill Troops out early. Expects many walls of texts, lots of word like 'grandpa,' "get with it,' 'no he di-int' and lots of privileged white kids trying to use street talk.
To outright steal a comment I read in another tread: "Hoodies Up! Drawstrings To Maximum Tightness! Engage!" Weeeeeeee!