iTunes snared in privacy brouhaha
It took me a few minutes to disable the Mini Store in the new version of iTune; that setting is well hidden in the prefs. I disabled it simply because it took so much valuable screen real estate (about 1/5 of the window) for a feature of marginal benefit.
Now, after reading the following article , I am rather glad I did it. Not that it matters much, but I am profoundly allergic to all these data collection sources, information that could eventualy be aggregated and used for various purpose by unauthorized third parties.
From:theage.com.au
iTunes snared in privacy brouhaha
By Louisa Hearn
January 13, 2006 – 3:12PM
Apple has moved to reassure iTunes customers after a number of complaints surfaced over the use of data collection technology in the latest release of its popular music download service. The controversy is based on a new function called the MiniStore in version 6.0.2 of iTunes, which tracks data about a selected song so customers can receive other relevant recommendations.
Although the feature can be deactivated, consumers complained they were not warned about it before downloading the software, and had not received adequate explanation of what data was being collected about them or their purchases by the MiniStore.
Privacy has emerged as a key issue in music media technology ever since Sony BMG attempted to introduce copy protection software on music CDs which downloaded software that opened up security holes on PCs and then proved very difficult to remove.
The company said in a statement: “Apple does not save or store any information used to create recommendations for the MiniStore.”
Concerns about the purpose of the MiniStore feature first emerged on a number blogs including Boing Boing.