Do people really get worked up over that kind of telemetry? I know I wouldn't. I would even be OK with much more telemetry around most actions in the game as long as it doesn't snoop on anything outside of what I do in the game.
I'm a fan of pure gameplay telemetry, pure error telemetry, etc... I specifically remember being amazed at the heatmaps that Bungie shared about data in Halo 2 and thinking that I needed to learn how to do that, and it was going to change how development was done forever.
But it's difficult to police good telemetry and easy to change silently. Bad actors have continually given justifiable reasons for data collection, sometimes even with a pinky-swear that they'll not use it for evil. But the terms can be updated by the party collecting the data at any time they desire, with little recourse for the user other than to stop using that product or service.
So no, I'm not worked up over that kind of telemetry, but I'm still going to block it. It doesn't make sense not to.
Yes. I don't know what is being sent back, or what information it has gathered. If a program does not require internet access for its basic functionality, and it then accesses the internet without explicitly asking me for permission, it should be viewed with extreme suspicion.
