What?

> The Visual Code editor available under community/code does not seem to be the "clean" version, but the telemetry-enabled version (therefore probably Microsoft-licensed).

Where are you getting that from? Check /usr/lib/code/product.json, it does not enable any telemetry features.

> - build from the "clean" source on GitHub (in theory, should not be telemetry-enabled --- to be confirmed) or

That's what we do. Have you even looked at the PKGBUILD before opening this bug report?!

> - preferably, build from VSCodium https://vscodium.com/

Why is this preferred? Vscodium just provides a set of scripts to build vscode from source.

> Where are you getting that from? Check /usr/lib/code/product.json, it does not enable any telemetry features.

/usr/lib/code/product.json does not show any telemetry but it is enabled in the parameters (CTRL+, then search "telemetry").

> That's what we do. Have you even looked at the PKGBUILD before opening this bug report?!

I did not: I installed code (1.40.0-3) with sudo pacman -S code and looked at the resulting software on my computer, which has telemetry enabled, contrary to the VSCodium build from AUR.

> Why is this preferred? Vscodium just provides a set of scripts to build vscode from source.

It works and raises awareness?

I'm sensing a lot of hostility here, I'm sorry if you feel that I'm wasting your time and I understand how much work Arch is, but I do think there is a real issue here: I get that you think this was already taken care of but it simply is not the case on the end-user's computer, which I think is all that matters.
The steps to check this are straightforward and discussed above... this might be the result of an old configuration file on my computer, but I do not think so (I removed all files in .config), so could you please check again directly in the IDE's configuration after a fresh install? (CTRL+, then search "telemetry")

> /usr/lib/code/product.json does not show any telemetry but it is enabled in the parameters (CTRL+, then search "telemetry").

Yes, but AFAIK that option will be meaningless unless telemetry is enabled in product.json. I tried to test that and I did not see any traffic going to microsoft's servers.
The presence of the setting even though telemetry is not enabled in product.json is an upstream bug, they shouldn't show a config setting if the build doesn't support it, please open a bug report there.

> I did not: I installed code (1.40.0-3) with sudo pacam -S code and looked at the resulting software on my computer, which has telemetry enabled, contrary to the VSCodium build from AUR.

Please try to check that kind of thing before making claims like this.

> It works and raises awareness?

To me it just seems like a vendored vscode, all of that patching can be done without their scripts.

> I'm sensing a lot of hostility here, I'm sorry if you feel that I'm wasting your time and I understand how much work Arch is, but I do think there is a real issue here: I get that you think this was already taken care of but it simply is not the case on the end-user's computer, which I think is all that mattered.

I am not trying to be hostile, sorry. When I have this kind of argument I try to keep the things on a technical level, if you sense any kind of hostility please know it's not against you but against your argument. Please do not take any of this personally.

Could you please find out if telemetry data is indeed sent in the current build? I don't think it is and I wouldn't expect the upstream to do something like that, but we are talking about Microsoft so I might be totally wrong. My testing suggests it isn't but I do not have enough time to get any proper results.

> The steps to check this are straightforward and discussed above... this might be the result of an old configuration file on my computer, but I do not think so (I removed all files in .config), so could you please check again directly in the IDE's configuration after a fresh install? (CTRL+, then search "telemetry")

As I said above, I don't think that accurately represents if telemetry is enabled or not. Telemetry should be disabled in the build, hence that option should be insignificant.

Ok, thanks for your answer.
I'm afraid efficient traffic monitoring is not my forte... I spent a couple hours looking into it but I did not get anywhere.

I am still rather unsure about your bug hypothesis simply because, as mentioned previously, the telemetry settings are properly unchecked when installing VSCodium, so it does seem that the preferences can reflect the fact that telemetry is off.
I'll try to investigate further when I find the time.

See https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/79703#issuecomment-524512338. If the upstream is not actively trying to deceive us no telemetry data should be sent back to microsoft.

Closing this.