Payday 3: Should You Enable Telemetry? – Answered

Payday 3 is finally here! After over 10 years, the sequel was finally released with eight heists available to play at launch. With all the praise given to the technical tests before launch and the love for the series thus far, people are naturally quite excited to see what’s in store. Once you get started though, there are a number of things you need to opt in or out of. One such option is very confusing. Here’s whether you should enable Telemetry in Payday 3.

What is Telemetry in Payday 3?

Telemetry is a data collection feature in Payday 3, first introduced in the previous installment. This will collect data over all of your play sessions, including which heists you’re playing, whether you’re completing or failing various heists, which weapons you use, and which skills you take. In Starbreeze’s words, they’ll then take this data and use it to make decisions such as what to buff or nerf, and what direction upcoming content should be taken in.

The main downside here is the topic of data privacy, something that’s highly debated in the internet space. The idea of giving other companies your data is a scary thing to think about, especially when it comes to data that’s more personal like date of birth, location, age, or things of the sort. Enabling Telemetry won’t track any of that data, but the principle still applies.

Should You Enable Telemetry in Your Game?

If you’re anything like me, there’s no harm in enabling Telemetry in Payday 3, and it should be enabled. If it’s used how Starbreeze says it will be used, then it can only be for the benefit of balancing out the game. There’s going to be a lot of content in the coming months and years, so if that content is focused on the things we want, then it’s a no-brainer.

With that being said, you won’t lose out on anything if you disable Telemetry. You won’t have any stats on your weapons change, and won’t have any aspect of matchmaking change. If you’re serious about data privacy, then you’re free to leave it disabled for that bit of peace of mind.

If you’re looking for more details before jumping into the game, check out our guide on whether Payday 3 will have mod support.