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New iTunes phones home

updated 04:05 pm EST, Thu January 12, 2006

New iTunes phones home

Some avid Mac users recently discovered that Apple's latest iTunes update--version 6.0.2--. The traffic flows only as long as the iTunes MiniStore remains open, and only when users click on songs. An Apple representative--rumored to be Steve Jobs himself--said at the Expo that Apple discards personal information transmitted by the iTunes Ministore to the company while iTunes is in use. At first glance the information appears to be collected to display albums and tracks for sale by the artist whose song is currently playing, according to BoingBoing.net. [updated]

by MacNN Staff

(18)

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industry, digital music/video

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climacs
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2001

0

01/12, 04:29pm | report spam | close Reply |
three words

use Little Snitch.

http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

trevc
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Mar 2000

0

01/12, 05:01pm | report spam | close Reply |
It's web stats

Not big news, they use their live product for producing stats ... just a lot more efficient than using Web Server Log files.

We do it too, maybe there should be a clamp down. It's just that in these dynamic types of websites, web server logs are more complicated to properly analyze.

heavyboots
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Dec 2003

0

01/12, 05:02pm | report spam | close Reply |
Only when it's open

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303066

It's still a really lame thing to toss in there. But Apple has a long history of including objectionable things with their upgrades (ie, more sharing limitations).

shawnce
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2000

0

01/12, 05:05pm | report spam | close Reply |
NOT EVERY SONG PLAYED

Please stop spreading wrong information... in other words be responsible and change the articles title!

The mini store displays information based only on the currently select song in the iTunes window, from the "article" you reference.

"Kirk adds, "after more analysis, this does not send info to Apple when you are playing music, but rather when you click on a song. 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.""

ATPTourFan
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2003

0

01/12, 05:45pm | report spam | close Reply |
Pretty...

...sick of this non-story... RTFM and fix the headlines.

Apple has had a knowledge base article up about the ministore and how to completely disable it (Just hide it! imagine that!) since the download became available.

jtarpley
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2006

0

01/12, 05:52pm | report spam | close Reply |
Much to do about nothing!

If you sign up with iTMS for "one click", Apple already has your credit card info. My choice in music is hardly a national security issue. Frankly, I like the idea of being matched with music I might enjoy. Hummm.... Isn't that the whole concept of the iTMS? I think your journalistic energies would be better focused elsewhere. "Much to do about nothing."

adrian_milliner
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2005

0

01/12, 06:02pm | report spam | close Reply |
Article title is false

Please fix it. You're misrepresentation is doing the greater damage here.

heavyboots
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Dec 2003

0

01/12, 06:17pm | report spam | close Reply |
bad reporting

Actually, as commented by others, not only is this bad reporting, but you managed to report it wrong several hours after Macintouch got it right... You should change the article to be correct or just delete the thing.

mattmarshall
Senior User

Joined: Oct 1999

0

01/12, 06:25pm | report spam | close Reply |
you're lying

seriously, macnn is lying, and it makes me not want to read your site anymore.

why don't you read what you link to?

porieux
Baninated

Joined: Mar 2001

0

01/12, 08:14pm | report spam | close Reply |
agreed

bad job on this one guys. time to shape up...

- - e r i k - -
Posting Junkie

Joined: May 2001

0

01/12, 09:39pm | report spam | close Reply |
Smart or stupid?

If you are trying to look smart by quoting Shakespeare, make sure that you at least get the quote right. It's "much ado about nothing". "Much to do about nothing" doesn't even make sense.

LouZer
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2000

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01/12, 10:57pm | report spam | close Reply |
non-story? Sure....

Yeah, if MS did this with media player, you'd be all over them. But its apple, so its a non-story. Except, of course, they don't spell it out anywhere (except in some knowledge base article NO ONE reads). Don't you think it would be nice if (a) apple actually said, up-front, that they send the info, (b) turned the feature OFF by default, so you have to turn it on (you know, and opt-in kind of thing), (c) didn't send your user ID information to the server (for why is this sent if its discarded and not needed???), and (d) actually have something written specifically that says they don't keep the info.

But, right, its Apple. They can't do anything wrong....

davidahn
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2004

0

01/13, 01:06am | report spam | close Reply |
Apple or Microsoft?

Is this Apple or Microsoft? What happened to fighting Big Brother as Apple's 1984 Superbowl commercial suggested? I'm a loyal Apple user since 1984, but I gotta call it as I see it. I was shocked when I saw this on my Mac.

Maybe you should stop reading ALL Mac news sites and just hang out on apple.com. That way you won't have to be offended by any of this unbiased information.

David

aristotles
Grizzled Veteran

Joined: Jul 2004

0

01/13, 01:21am | report spam | close Reply |
It is a feature.

If you don't like it, turn it off. Gracenote sends info back to their servers when you insert a CD Oh no! Run for the hills!

It is turned on so that noobs will know it exists and some people may actually like the feature.

tomodachi
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2002

0

01/13, 01:39am | report spam | close Reply |
Holy c***

This article has been up for, what, 10 hours and MacNN still hasn't fixed it? WTF with this website. It's never been fantastic, but it seems like it's hitting new lows.

And re: people disturbed...

Ahh, hello, you click on a song, Mini store opens, they give you suggestions on related artists/works.

And you think they could do this without sending info back regarding the song you clicked HOW??

>> if MS did this with media player

You see, if it were MS, they'd collect the data and use them as they please without (a) letting the end-user know they do that, period (not even in their knowledge base), and (b) not giving even a clue about it (as this feature does, rather blatantly in my opinion), and finally (c) not providing the user with any benefits for doing that (like displaying relevant information that you might be interested in).

Should they have turned the feature off by default? Perhaps yes, but then again, if that were the case, so many people will never know it's been added, especially with Apple's tradition of not making features explicit. More people probably benefitted from the feature being turned on by default than those who were pissed off.

hayesk
Professional Poster

Joined: Sep 1999

0

01/13, 10:43am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: non-store? sure

louzer, who cares about MS - this is a Mac site. Argue the point itself not some hypothetical "if MS did this" garbage. If you can't make your point with that, then you really don't have a point.

When a window shows you recommended songs based on the one your playing, how the heck do you think they know? Of course the song you played was sent. Nobody should be shocked about this. Why should they turn it off by default? It's a new feature. Nobody's going to find it if you don't show it to them.

Geez, hide the mini-store if you don't like it. Move on.

testudo
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Joined: Aug 2001

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01/13, 11:04am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: non story

I like everyone who says "Hide the store" when it takes apple to produce a knowledge base article just to tell people how to do this. It isn't obvious.

Second, I also like how people don't seem to think its a big deal, or just believe Apple when it says its throwing out the user data. Nice, but how about something in WRITING!

Third, no one seems to care that they're not just sending song info (who cares about that), but also your user ID, which means that they can store a large list of music you own. Hey, then the RIAA sues apple to get this info so they can track down people who are illegally downloading music.

And this may be a mac site, but the point is clear. If MS had done this, mac users would be up in arms about how unsecure MS is, and how they're stealing your data and all that. But its apple, so all the mac-heads are "I trust Apple! They wouldn't lie to me or steal from me! Just like when they used to sell AppleCare to florida residents, only to then tell them it wasn't valid. Or the two times they told me my iBook's motherboard was fixed. Or that I'd get a 500Mhz G4 when they announced them. Or a 3GHz computer. Or that my older G3 was going to be OS X compatible. They certainly wouldn't give out misinformation!"

tomodachi
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2002

0

01/13, 07:59pm | report spam | close Reply |
uhh

And you, testudo, don't seem to care that Macnn is misinforming its readers when it says iTunes reports every song played and hasn't fixed their title in over a day.

If Macnn were to feed readers with positive misinformation, you'd be all over it, and you know it.

>>I like everyone who says "Hide the store" when it takes apple to produce a knowledge base article just to tell people how to do this. It isn't obvious.

That is SO FUNNY, testudo. Apple has a knowledge base article just to tell people where they can buy Tiger.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301242

Yeah, you're right. Some people are quite moronic, or, lets just say, computer illiterate. Now, how'd you think such computer illiterate people would EVER find out about what MANY would consider as a useful feature, if Apple turned it off by default? The answer is, they won't.

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New iTunes phones home

updated 04:05 pm EST, Thu January 12, 2006

New iTunes phones home

three words

It's web stats

Only when it's open

NOT EVERY SONG PLAYED

Pretty...

Much to do about nothing!

Article title is false

bad reporting

you're lying

agreed

Smart or stupid?

non-story? Sure....

Apple or Microsoft?

It is a feature.

Holy c***

Re: non-store? sure

Re: non story

uhh

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New iTunes phones home

updated 04:05 pm EST, Thu January 12, 2006

New iTunes phones home

Related Articles

Recent Articles

three words

It's web stats

Only when it's open

NOT EVERY SONG PLAYED

Pretty...

Much to do about nothing!

Article title is false

bad reporting

you're lying

agreed

Smart or stupid?

non-story? Sure....

Apple or Microsoft?

It is a feature.

Holy c***

Re: non-store? sure

Re: non story

uhh

Login Here

Register for our weekly email newsletter:

Connect tools:

Subscribe

to our RSS

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