Apple downplays iTunes 'spyware' fears

Apple downplays iTunes 'spyware' fears
 
 Apple has denied that it retains any of the information that the latest update to its hugely popular jukebox software, iTunes, creates as it monitor users' listening selections.
 
 iTunes 6.0.2 was released earlier this week. Among the tweaks is MiniStore, an iTunes Music Store panel that appears below library track lists. Many users immediately found and used a button located among those in the bottom right-hand corner of the window and turned MiniStore off. However, a number of others, cited by a range of websites, spotted sudden increases in network activity when the feature is enabled.
 
 The reason: the MiniStore uses what you're listening to to display a series of related albums and songs you may like to buy. You could argue it's no more spyware than Amazon.com's purchasing suggestions - a technique used by numerous e-commerce sites - but it's got some folk in a tizzy.
 
 So much so that Apple this week contacted a number of websites to insist that the feature not only doesn't record the data it grabs, but when the MiniStore is disabled, no such data is sent back to the ITMS servers.
 
 Curiously, Apple's support Knowledge Base has an entry dated 4 January 2006 - before iTunes 6.0.2 was released - tells users how to turn MiniStore on and off. The document was updated on 9 January 2006. It's not clear what was modified on that date, but it does say: "iTunes sends data about the song selected in your library to the iTunes Music Store to provide relevant recommendations. When the MiniStore is hidden, this data is not sent to the iTunes Music Store."
 
 A retro-active addition to guard against complaints that Apple didn't mention its little tracker up front? We can't say, but the moral of the story is clear: tell people what you're up to first. We downloaded iTunes 6.0.2 as soon as it appeared in our Software Update check and don't recall seeing anything about sending data back to ITMS.

[Venerable Bede]

From the Los Angeles Times
 
 Critics Say ITunes Is Snooping
 
 By Dawn C. Chmielewski
 Times Staff Writer
 
 January 13, 2006
 
 The latest version of Apple Computer Inc.'s popular iTunes software scans a computer's digital music collection and recommends new songs to buy â?? a feature blasted by privacy advocates as electronic snooping.
 
 But futurists said Apple's MiniStore hinted at the sort of customized online experience that Internet boosters have been promising for nearly a decade. The so-called push technology uses the Internet to deliver news updates, traffic reports or music picks to a computer desktop.
 
 "You have agents and expert systems that do very, very limited kinds of things and do them increasingly well," said Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, research director for the nonprofit Institute for the Future. "We can have a program that is tuned to a particular task, like analyzing the music that you listen to and combining that with other information to generate suggestions about what else you might be interested in."
 
 The MiniStore and its spontaneous music recommendations illustrate how push technology is taking hold. The latest version of Apple's OS X operating system and Microsoft Corp.'s next iteration of the Windows operating system feature "widgets," compact information retrievers that deliver up-to-theminute weather and stock reports.
 
 When users play a song in iTunes, the MiniStore software displays a list of albums that can be purchased by the same artist along the bottom of the window. It also shows what other listeners who like the song purchased.
 
 A spokesman said Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple did not save or store any of the information used to create recommendations for the MiniStore. And users can disable the feature.
 
 Jason Schultz, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group, criticized Apple's failure to disclose upfront what the company planned to do with the information it gathered.
 
 "Apple should come clean," Schultz said. "They owe it to their user base. It's not going to kill their market. My question to them is, what are they afraid of? If this is something that is standard run of the mill, it should be transparent."
 
 But a growing number of people don't find features like MiniStore offensive. Young adults who have come of age with Web cams, movie recommendations on Netflix and ads that pop up alongside Internet search queries find the applications helpful.
 
 "Surveys that deal with Generation X and younger indicate these audiences love this stuff. They are not concerned at all with the privacy aspects of this stuff," said Rob Enderle, founder of Enderle Group, a technology consulting firm. "They just don't have the same sensibilities. As long as nobody uses that information against them, they don't have any problem as long as it makes the experience better."
 
 Copyright © 2006, The Los Angeles Times

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Venerable Bede:
  But a growing number of people don't find features like MiniStore offensive. Young adults who have come of age with Web cams, movie recommendations on Netflix and ads that pop up alongside Internet search queries find the applications helpful.

I bet they've got Gmail accounts too.
 
 Right now, the public trusts Apple and Google, but the bigger they get, the more problems they will face.  If this was Microsoft, and even now Sony, folks would be up in arms!

[Herr Professor Doktor Doom]

Heh, it's funny how lilly-livered, granola-eating, yellow-bellied, sap-sucking, birkenstock wearers tend to love Macs.  But Apple is actually much more fascistic and closed-source in its business model than the PC world.   Just look at the way Airtunes will *only* work with Apple software.   Or the way if you try to copy songs from an Ipod to Itunes, Itunes will automatically assume you're stealing music and erase your entire music collection without even asking.

[vansmack]

This begs the question, with iTunes presumably supporting WMA files now, will the iPod be next?
 
 Microsoft to stop developing media software for Macs
 ALLISON LINN
 Associated Press
 
 SEATTLE -
 
 Microsoft Corp. will stop developing a version of its Windows Media Player for Apple Computer Inc.'s Macs, and will instead offer free technology that lets people play Windows Media files using Apple's own software.
 
 The company decided to stop developing the Mac version so it could focus on efforts for Vista, the new version of Microsoft's Windows operating system that is due out later this year, said Tim Harader, a senior business development manager with Microsoft's Windows digital media division.
 
 "We've been so focused on Vista and we've been so focused on creating an incredible media experience on the PC," Harader said Friday. "We just did not have the resources to do a good job on (the Mac version)."
 
 Apple computers represent about 4 percent of the U.S. market. PCs running Microsoft's Windows operating system comprise the vast majority.
 
 Microsoft said it would continue to offer the current version but won't make any more improvements to it. The software maker has signed a deal with Nevada City, Calif.-based Telestream Inc. to offer a free plug-in that will let people play Windows Media video and audio files using Apple's QuickTime player.
 
 Because Microsoft's media player for Macs has not been updated for quite some time, Harader said the quality of some Windows Media files could be better if people used the plug-in and QuickTime.
 
 In 2004, Microsoft also said it would stopped making a version of its Internet Explorer browser for Macs.
 
 But just days ago, Microsoft said it had signed a five-year pact with Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple to continue to develop versions of its Office business software for Macs. The company said the deal was partly to show customers that it has a long-term commitment to the Mac market.
 However, unlike the free Web browser and media player, Microsoft's Office software for Mac sells for between $149 and $499.
 
 An Apple spokesman did not return calls seeking comment.
 
 From our San Jose Native, Venerable Bede:  http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/13621279.htm

[Darth Ed]

Originally posted by vansmack:
  This begs the question, with iTunes presumably supporting WMA files now, will the iPod be next?

When hell freezes over.

[anarchist]

boycott apple.  boycott sony.  boycott itunes.  steal music.  pay for concerts.

[Herr Professor Doktor Doom]

Originally posted by anarchist:
  boycott apple.  boycott sony.  boycott itunes.  steal music.  pay for concerts.

Thank you for our marching orders!