> for system settings specifically, I wonder what kind of ad targeting would you get out of that?
You get sensitive data out of system settings, such as for instance health data: Does the user have a vision or hearing impairment, use assistive technologies etc.?
Would it count as a paid user study if enabling telemetry for Windows knocked $10 off of the price of your computer?
I can’t decide if that’s a neat idea or dystopic. Which, historically, probably means it’s dystopic and that plenty of people are already doing it.
I think “traditional” paid user studies often suffer from the same sampling problems that make political polls and behavioral paid medical studies less useful (you’re not surveying the average voter; you’re surveying the average voter who likes to answer polls). But maybe the “$10 off” idea would capture a broad enough demographic as to be more useful.
Still think it shouldn't be there by default - it reduces privacy and is a lame excuse not to do (paid) user studies.