microsoft / microsoft/vscode

Copilot agent chat should not show feedback (chat transcript upload) buttons when telemetry off or using BYOK

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#336,698 2 comments 0 reactions 1 assignee View on GitHub

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Dominant language
TypeScript
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Description

When using BYOK to run a self-hosted model, 'helpful' / 'unhelpful' buttons are displayed. Though I am not aware of the specifics of the vs code implementation, usually AI chat feedback buttons such as these would upload the chat transcript (and associated attached code files!) to a telemetry API for future model training.

When running in either of the below configurations, the buttons should be hidden/disabled so data is not accidentally uploaded to Microsoft:

  1. Non-Microsoft model provider (BYOK) - since user would have a reasonable expectation that self-hosting the model would not upload chat transcript.
  2. User preference "telemetry.telemetryLevel": "off" - since user would have a reasonable expectation that chat transcripts would not be uploaded at all.

However, when testing with both of these settings, the buttons remain visible and chat transcript data presumably uploaded (though not yet confirmed in wireshark).

Image

The chance of inadvertently uploading sensitive code would create concern to users in secure environments and thus may limit adoption of Copilot chat in certain organizations or users.

  • VS Code Version: 1.133.0
  • Github copilot: 1.0.79-6
  • Github copilot-sdk: 1.0.9
  • OS Version: Ubuntu 24LTS

Thank you!

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First steps

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  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by tracing the Copilot agent chat feedback controls and the checks for the telemetry.telemetryLevel preference and BYOK/non-Microsoft providers. Reproduce the behavior with telemetry off and with BYOK, then verify that the helpful/unhelpful buttons are hidden or disabled in both configurations without changing the expected behavior for other providers.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
typescript
Domain
desktop, security
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
52/100

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