That's true, although anyone who cares about truly free software presumably would look into the details to check.

You can disable the telemetry: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/supporting/faq#_how-to-di...

My point was really that it's free and open enough for any practical purpose I'm able to discern. Refusing to use it on the grounds of insufficient openness or freedom seems to me to require an unreasonably absolutist ideological stance on the issue.