p2pnet - rss feed: Does iTunes phone home?
p2p news / p2pnet: Is iTunes 6.0.2 loading users’ computers with software they don’t want, don’t need and didn’t ask for?
Because the latest update adds something new Kirk McElhearn describes as invasive.
When 6.0.2 users go to their libraries, they see a “MiniStore” at the bottom of the window, he says on his blog, going on:
“This is easily removed (either by clicking the MiniStore button in the bottom-right section of the iTunes window, or by selecting Edit > Hide MiniStore), but it’s not just its presence that’s a problem.
“Cory Doctorow, writing on BoingBoing today, pointed out that this MiniStore displays songs that are similar to those you are playing, if you listen to music with iTunes. (If not, you see a generic display with New Releases, Top Songs and Top Albums.) Cory’s comments are very clear:
“I stand firmly beside Cory’s comments. Apple has overstepped its limits, and this spyware (because it sends information to a server) and adware (because it displays information to attempt to sell you products) is a very serious breach of the trust I have long had in Apple’s products.”
In an edit, “after more analysis, this does not send info to Apple when you are playing music, but rather when you click on a song,” McElhearn points out. “So if you start playing a song by double-clicking, it will send info to the iTunes Music Store and retrieve suggestions. But if the song is in a playlist, the MiniStore display will not change when the next song begins.”
Solution?
If you, “don’t want iTunes phoning home - and you may not want Apple to record the music you listen to - you can simply hide the MiniStore.”
And in another edit, “Rob Griffiths, writing in an editorial for Macworld, writes, ‘… an Apple official told Macworld that the iTunes MiniStore feature does not collect any information from users.’ I’m a bit unsure about the use of the term ‘collect’; I’ll read it as ’store and save’.
“However,” adds McElhearn, “this does not change the fact that Apple is sending information to a server without warning users, and that neither their license agreement nor their help tell this to users.”
Also See:
blog - iTunes: Apple’s New Spyware and Adware Application?, January 11, 2006
January 12th, 2006 at 5:10 pm
“Solution? …simply hide the MiniStore.”
IMHO, if iTunes is sending info about what songs you listen to to Apple servers, hiding the MiniStore will not stop it. You will not see the results, but the app’s behaviour will not change. Just my opinion.