diff --git a/docs/changes/newsfragments/5991.breaking b/docs/changes/newsfragments/5991.breaking
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..391494e8f6c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/changes/newsfragments/5991.breaking
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+QCoDeS no longer installs opencensus and opencensus-ext-azure are no longer installed by default and opencensus integration is deprecated.
+This means that the option ``qcodes.config.telemetry.enabled`` to ``True`` is deprecated. For the time being opencensus and opencensus-ext-azure
+can be installed by installing QCoDeS with the opencensus option e.g. ``pip install qcodes[opencensus]``. We however, recommend that any use
+of this telemetry integration is replaced by the use of OpenTelemetry. QCoDeS will not include any telemetry integration but the codebase
+has been instrumented using OpenTelemetry spans and python log messages enabling any user to collect telemetry if they should so wish.
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 9cf5f3084e0..b28f25fad2a 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -33,8 +33,6 @@ dependencies = [
     "jsonschema>=4.9.0",
     "matplotlib>=3.3.3",
     "numpy>=1.21.0",
-    "opencensus>=0.7.10",
-    "opencensus-ext-azure>=1.0.4, <2.0.0",
     "packaging>=20.0",
     "pandas>=1.2.0",
     "pyarrow>=11.0.0", # will become a requirement of pandas. Installing explicitly silences a warning
@@ -58,7 +56,6 @@ dependencies = [
     "tornado>=6.3.3",
     "ipython>=8.10.0",
     "pillow>=9.0.0",
-    "rsa>=4.7",
 ]
 
 dynamic = ["version"]
@@ -118,6 +115,10 @@ docs = [
     "qcodes_loop>=0.1.1", # legacy dataset import examples
     "jinja2>=3.1.3", # transitive dependency pin due to cve in earlier version
 ]
+opencensus = [
+    "opencensus>=0.7.10",
+    "opencensus-ext-azure>=1.0.4, <2.0.0",
+]
 
 [project.scripts]
 qcodes-monitor = "qcodes.monitor.monitor:main"
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 98b578eef87..2ed5a3eb597 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -117,9 +117,7 @@ idna==3.7
 imagesize==1.4.1
     # via sphinx
 importlib-metadata==6.11.0
-    # via
-    #   dask
-    #   opentelemetry-api
+    # via opentelemetry-api
 incremental==22.10.0
     # via towncrier
 iniconfig==2.0.0
@@ -249,6 +247,7 @@ packaging==24.0
     #   dask
     #   h5netcdf
     #   ipykernel
+    #   lazy-loader
     #   matplotlib
     #   msal-extensions
     #   nbconvert
@@ -282,10 +281,13 @@ portalocker==2.8.2
     # via msal-extensions
 prompt-toolkit==3.0.43
     # via ipython
+proto-plus==1.23.0
+    # via google-api-core
 protobuf==4.25.3
     # via
     #   google-api-core
     #   googleapis-common-protos
+    #   proto-plus
 psutil==5.9.8
     # via
     #   ipykernel
diff --git a/src/qcodes/logger/logger.py b/src/qcodes/logger/logger.py
index 66d4c25a622..dc9463173b7 100644
--- a/src/qcodes/logger/logger.py
+++ b/src/qcodes/logger/logger.py
@@ -8,8 +8,6 @@
 import io
 import json
 import logging
-
-# logging.handlers is not imported by logging. This extra import is necessary
 import logging.handlers
 import os
 import platform
@@ -18,26 +16,25 @@
 from contextlib import contextmanager
 from copy import copy
 from datetime import datetime
-from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Optional, Union
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Any, Optional, Union
+
+from typing_extensions import deprecated
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
     from collections.abc import Iterator, Sequence
     from types import TracebackType
 
-    from opencensus.ext.azure.common.protocol import (  # type: ignore[import-untyped]
-        Envelope,
-    )
-    from opencensus.ext.azure.log_exporter import (  # type: ignore[import-untyped]
-        AzureLogHandler,
-    )
-
 import qcodes as qc
 from qcodes.utils import (
+    QCoDeSDeprecationWarning,
     get_all_installed_package_versions,
     get_qcodes_user_path,
     is_qcodes_installed_editably,
 )
 
+AzureLogHandler = Any
+Envelope = Any
+
 log: logging.Logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 LevelType = Union[int, str]
@@ -201,11 +198,17 @@ def flush_telemetry_traces() -> None:
         telemetry_handler.flush()
 
 
+@deprecated(
+    "OpenCensus integration is deprecated. Please use your own telemetry integration as needed, we recommend OpenTelemetry",
+    category=QCoDeSDeprecationWarning,
+)
 def _create_telemetry_handler() -> "AzureLogHandler":
     """
     Configure, create, and return the telemetry handler
     """
-    from opencensus.ext.azure.log_exporter import AzureLogHandler
+    from opencensus.ext.azure.log_exporter import (  # type: ignore[import-not-found]
+        AzureLogHandler,
+    )
     global telemetry_handler
 
     # The default_custom_dimensions will appear in the "customDimensions"
@@ -251,6 +254,7 @@ def callback_function(envelope: "Envelope") -> bool:
         connection_string=f"InstrumentationKey="
         f"{qc.config.telemetry.instrumentation_key}"
     )
+    assert telemetry_handler is not None
     telemetry_handler.add_telemetry_processor(callback_function)
     telemetry_handler.setLevel(logging.INFO)
     telemetry_handler.addFilter(CustomDimensionsFilter(default_custom_dimensions))
@@ -312,7 +316,9 @@ def start_logger() -> None:
     logging.captureWarnings(capture=True)
 
     if qc.config.telemetry.enabled:
-        root_logger.addHandler(_create_telemetry_handler())
+        root_logger.addHandler(
+            _create_telemetry_handler()  # pyright: ignore[reportDeprecated]
+        )
 
     log.info("QCoDes logger setup completed")