The knee-jerk reactions are unfortunately because the word "telemetry" has been perverted into having that connotation by those who don't want to call what they're doing "spyware". It certainly doesn't help to see that word along with "GitHub", who is now owned by a company which is doing exactly that.

Other relevant euphemisms that have appeared within the past few years: "analytics", "diagnostics", "usage reporting", "connected experiences", "experience improvement".