It's come out that Audacity is trying to implement a telemetry gathering code from Google and Yandex into the system but there is a large user backlash against this causing them to change gears. So the setting it to not be active by default when you install new versions of the software at this point with the option to turn it on. Also it turns out that Muse Group has purchased Audacity which seems to be the driving influence into the implementation of telemetry coding.
TL;DW
It's come out that Audacity is trying to implement a telemetry gathering code from Google and Yandex into the system but there is a large user backlash against this causing them to change gears. So the setting it to not be active by default when you install new versions of the software at this point with the option to turn it on. Also it turns out that Muse Group has purchased Audacity which seems to be the driving influence into the implementation of telemetry coding.
Lol Audacity is open source so even if they implement the telemetry gathering code, one can just download an older version through source control.
If you aren't tech-savvy, you can just search "audacity old version" and that will get you an older, non-invasive version.
Indeed. For additional context, the sale occurred tin April, so picking whatever was the latest release before then would likely be a safe bet.
I won't be surprised if there's a fork of it soon without telemetry under a name like "effrontery."
https://www.fosshub.com/Audacity-old.html
Though the current version (3.0.2) was released April 19th so unlikely the Muse Group meddled in it much yet.