iTunes is Spying on Me

Is the iTunes Mini-store a great idea or a breach of trust?

The latest version of iTunes apparently scans your music collection and offers suggestions for new music from the iTunes store. I thought this was kind of neat when Amazon first started doing this, but it is a whole different ballgame when this is being done on my own PC — not at a remote site. With Amazon, I have to actively choose to register my preferences — whereas with iTunes I have to actively choose NOT to.

This new version of iTunes takes some of the goodness in Pandora, and makes it slightly unpalatable. Do I want iTunes searching through my files? Do I want to let Apple know what is on my PC? Probably not. Just like I don’t want Microsoft searching through my files. And then what do they do with that information anyway?

It is not simply enough to disclose this in the licensing information. How many of us actually read through the licensing information when installing software? Do we know what we are getting? Do we know what it really means?

I would prefer these features to come in a disabled format. Then, if Apple can convince me of the merits, maybe I will turn them on.

S.