ByteDance is facing backlash after a developer accused its AI-powered coding tool, Trae IDE, of spying on users. The tool, launched as a free competitor to Cursor, Copilot, and VS Code, allegedly collects invasive telemetry—even when users opt out.
Trae IDE: An AI Assistant with Strings Attached?
The tool gained traction for offering access to GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and DeepSeek for free. But its background operations are now under scrutiny. A developer using the GitHub handle segmentationf4u1t posted a detailed analysis on Hacker News, claiming that Trae IDE privacy concerns go far beyond normal telemetry.
Trae is a fork of Visual Studio Code. Yet on the same system, it reportedly consumed over 6 GB of RAM and launched 33 processes—far more than VS Code’s 9 or Cursor’s 11.
Trae allegedly sent over 500 outbound calls in just seven minutes, transferring 26MB of user data—even after users disabled telemetry.
What Is Being Collected?
Captured telemetry reportedly included:
- Hardware specs (CPU model, RAM, motherboard)
- OS and architecture
- User behavior (active time, mouse and keyboard activity)
- File paths, including full usernames
- Persistent identifiers:
user_id,device_id,machine_id,biz_user_id, and more
Despite turning off telemetry in the settings, the developer noted the data transfer intensified instead of stopping.
They also documented Trae IDE calling multiple ByteDance-owned domains, including three active endpoints on the byteoversea[.]com TLD.
Community Reaction and ByteDance’s Silence
The post triggered hundreds of responses on Hacker News, with users expressing alarm. Trae’s moderators muted and blocked the developer after they raised the issue on the official Discord. They also added the word ‘track’ to a filter list, automatically banning users who mentioned it.
“Legitimate security concerns were treated as disruptive behavior,” the developer wrote. Screenshots and intercepted payloads were shared as proof.
ByteDance has yet to publicly respond to the allegations, though Cybernews has reached out for comment.
Conclusion
As ByteDance’s reach expands into developer tools, Trae IDE privacy concerns highlight a growing tension between convenience and control. Even with AI-powered perks, users are beginning to ask: what are we trading in return?
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