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CONFIRM: Hiding the iTunes Mini Store Will NOT Send Info to Apple.
macosxhints.com — As describe in this hint @ macosxhints.com. if you simply disable the mini store (Edit: Hide Ministore, or just Shift-Command-M), then no data is transmitted. There you have it, you can go back to listening to iTunes paranoia free.
YouKnowWho- 969 diggs
- digg it
- ImKenny, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Well its still stupid that they would even want to put that feature in there..
- andrewr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Actually by using their referred music service while in iTunes, I have discovered many new artists I love now. So its a good thing for some, evil for others.
- eltoozero, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Sounds cool to me, I'm sure it's anonymous, just like gmail's ads, duh! +digg
- JoeLeo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2No information is sent to Apple regardless if the Ministore is on or off:
http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/2006/01/ministore/index.php - David513, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I have no problem with this new feature in iTunes. First, there is no reason to think that Apple is keeping a database of the music you listen to. That sounds paranoid. Second, it's easy to turn out. Click one very obvious icon at the bottom. Third, it's a useful feature that amazon.com and other companies use all the time. Some people will blow anything out of proportion.
David - David513, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Turn OFF, not out. We need an edit button. Or I need to be more careful. :-)
- ahdustin, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1@David
Exactly. What is up with all this privacy information. You gave Apple your CREDIT CARD. And your worried about them know what songs you listen to, regardless of the fact that you buy specific songs from them. - djtripp, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2What david said above. People are freaking out over little things like this, yet have no problems using club cards at grocery stores or Costco and the like. Remember, you can always use cash and keep people from tracking you by double backing a lot and buying a normal looking car, and getting the license plate changed on a monthly basis...
- benadamson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@ahdustin
good point. haha but besides that ... i could care less if anyone knew what i listened to. - supernova17, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's ctrl+shift+m for Windows users.
- alexbahr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0What kind of whacko would get parinoid anyway. Sometimes people take this haxor leetness to a lame level.
- Slipdisc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0why would anyone worry about hiding info from apple?
- davdav, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2PHEW!
Apple does not know what song I am listening to! - maloney_633, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Lame
I WANT apple to know what I am listening to so they can recommend new songs. We better put on are tin foil hats because apple is collecting information. The next thing we know if this keeps on happening we will be bowing to Microsoft. But don't forget first we will become pod people. - SniperGX1, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0Its appauling they would do such an invasion of privacy. Their DRM sucks too
- jayson77, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0
the headline is badly worded.. should be
"Hiding mini store in iTunes disables listener data gathering"
the way its put, seems more like a warning to me.. semantics I guess. sounds like an objection, as it it was previously thought that hiding the mini store WOULD initiate sending info to apple.
no digg, plus lame. - mrmartini, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0This is spyware and it should be CLEARLY LABELED as such upon installation instead of mired in litigious jargon. We need legislation to hold software developers accountable for these "updates" to existing packages.
If you want to find new artists, go to http://www.pandora.com/ and set up your own streaming radio station. iTunes associations based on popularity and are driven by the music industry. Pandora actually employees music theorists to categorize music instead of studio execs. - simX, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0mrmartini: And how do YOU know that pandora.com doesn't categorize music according to the whims of studio execs. Do you have any proof of that? For all you know, pandora.com could be the one that's laden with "spyware", while iTunes is the one that employs music theorists to make its recommendations.
Stop with the speculation and misinformation please. - valis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Didn't we already know this? Digg is beginning to really bore me.
- tfaz1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yeah... I quite enjoy this feature. How else am I supposed to know what to look for on ThePirateBay.org? Already found a few new artists...
- zachberry, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Personally my worry wasn't the fact that iTunes possibily sent information to Apple (like already said, they have your CC number and the songs you've bought) but that it was discreet about it and wasn't obvious about the fact. I'm not worried anymore after reading more articles on the subject.
To avoid all the panic, a statement would've been nice on exactly what was being sent when and why. I'm not going to blindly trust any company that promises they won't keep information on me, but it's better then nothing and I trust Apple a little bit more then compaines like Real. - osbjmg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0maloney_633 - wow, now that's bad grammar... or just wholly incorrect usage of the word "are". I hate to be a grammar whore, but that is just bad bud.
- infectbda, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is NOT spyware. It can be easily turned off! I actually think it's a cool feature. Wish it could be made vertical too, instead of just horizontal.
- bmw@, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If you turn off the iTMS store altogether no info is sent.
I refuse to buy DRM-infected music, so I don't have the iTunes store enabled. The Ministore menu item is disabled in that case. Life is good. - RiddickRom, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I'm not saying I'm paranoid but I listen to music with the sound completely down to make sure no one knows what I'm playing. Clever huh?
Anyway, iTunes doesn't do any phoning home. If they did, I would have to stop using my computer and go back to audio cassettes.
No one must know what we are listening to! - osuadh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1if this were windows media player spying on what people are listening to and recommending other songs, there would be protests in the streets and thousands of whiny apple fanboys crying that windows sucks and Microsoft is evil.
- RiddickRom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Except Media Player already has a similar feature built in and no one gives a rats arse.
- rebrad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Big Brother Love You. Big Brother Only Wants To Protect You.
- diggscreenname, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1To respond to a couple of stupid posts.
1. This is spyware! It sends data from my computer to another computer without my knowledge or consent.
2. Apple doesn't have my CC number. They only have it if you have bought something from itunes which I havent. I don't want apple to have any of my info including what songs I have on my computer.
The bottom line is Apple is doing the same kind of crap here that everyone nails microsoft for except everybody wants to give apple a pass because they are apple. Not me, this is the kind of thing I want no part of. That is why I ditched windows for macos.
I understand that some people like this and want this and that is fine but there should have been full disclosure (we still don't know what they are doing with the data being collected) and this should be off by default. I shouldn't be forced to do something in order to keep MY computer from sending MY personal info to another computer. - jaknet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"if this were windows media player spying on what people are listening to and recommending other songs, there would be protests in the streets and thousands of whiny apple fanboys crying that windows sucks and Microsoft is evil"..............Ain't that the truth... but because it's Apple it's cool...and yes I'm ready for fanboy hate mail
- skellener, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0> What is up with all this privacy information. You gave Apple your CREDIT CARD. And your
> worried about them know what songs you listen to, regardless of the fact that you buy specific
> songs from them.
Giving them a credit card is your choice. Having a piece of software spy on you is not the same thing. If Apple's mini store is NOT collecting data then that's a good thing. The real problem with these types of things (phoning home and such) are they are only opt in - not opt out. People need to be given a choice. If you want to participate, fine. The software creators need to be honest about what the software does. Mostly though, they really just need to leave people alone. These are PAYING CUSTOMERS. Not exactly the people you want to piss off and lose to P2P. I don't think the music industry or movie industry understand that yet. - tmcleroy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0why can i not get the update? it says that 6.0.1 is the latest version!
email me if you know - BrianAllred, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The original post quote the MacOSXHints.com article. Since then that article has been corrected by the author:
"I have just received confirmation from Apple directly (from a confirmed source I trust implicitly) that absolutely no information is being collected from the MiniStore. Therefore, the following article is now simply a hint about an obvious feature (disabling the MiniStore), which I wouldn't typically run. However, in the interest of not rewriting history to avoid my mistakes, I have not changed any of the original text, though I did change the hint's title, and move the rest of the story 'below the break.'
So I'll apologize for jumping to conclusions, but not for helping bring the issue to light. And thanks to Apple for clarifying that no data is collected; you didn't have to contact me directly, yet you did, and I appreciate that. "
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060111071001306 - tfaz1, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3"1. This is spyware! It sends data from my computer to another computer without my knowledge or consent."
a) You had knowledge from the moment you first played a track in iTunes that it was phoning home. How else did you think it was making recommendations?
b) Read the EULA. You gave your consent.
What a bunch of crybabies. This isn't a root kit. This isn't spyware. This can be easily disabled with a button placed prominently in the iTunes window. Get over it... - fuzzycasserole, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Plus, pandora sucks compared to last.fm :p
Not that I know whether either are anything or whatever, I could care less, I do it more for the forum sig on last.fm than anything else. - steve693, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0All apple gets is a general idea of what kind of music it's consumers enjoy. The same ammount of information that ANY store gets when you purchase a product from them.
ZOMG I can't by eggs at the grocery store. It's transmitts my prefrence of eggs to teh JEWEL OSCO CORPORTATION! I have 2 protect mein privacy. FACISTS!
Privacy is important, but, like in the WoW-hack scanner, people overeact. - steve693, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0They can say that information isn't collected, but if you're on Apple's servers searching for music, they can see how many artist's pages get hit how many times. It's no more "private" information that you send out watching a television broadcast. (better analogy)
- Berkana, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0If you check in the discussions on Slashdot, where plenty of paranoid h4X0rs post, you'll see that they have since found out that the iTMS mini-store doesn't track you as a user, and that the updates happen per song selection, not per play. When you play a playlist, the iTMS mini store doesn't change as the songs change; it stays put with whatever song was selected when you first start playing.
In other words, it is not "clearly SPYWARE", unless you've redefined "spyware". If iTMS sent data back with every song selection, its servers would be easily overwhelmed; it would receive a data stream equivalent to a DDOS attack from every iTunes user in the world who selects on a song in their collection. - Berkana, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Why do people freak the hell out when iTunes does some pattern matching to suggest music and doesn't actually send your data back to the server, but digg it when Tunalyzer analyses all the metadata in your library and sends it back to a central data base?
Don't you all remember Tune-alyzer? (It was posted here on digg, but I have trouble finding the link. It was heavily dugg.) - Berkana, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If you gave Apple your credit card info, and you buy music on iTMS, they already know what you listen to. If your iTunes library is filled with non iTMS music, all they can do is look at your metadata, and suggest songs; they don't keep track of you as an individual. That would be too much work for not much more gain than simply pattern matching and suggesting songs, as they do now.
- Dave, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0That article is really lame. If I buy my music from Apple, they already know what I listen to. It's sad how many anti-corporate wanna be whistle blowers there are lately. It used to be, the idea of additional information being presented based on what you're doing was amazing. Now its an invasion of privacy? Especially since its obvoius and easy to turn off. If you're really that paranoid, its time to turn of your computer, burn your house down, and go live in a national park.
- t3hX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Ok, I opened ethereal and saw what it sends back. It sends back the artist, album and genre of the song. That is all. Nothing else. It also only sends back the songs you click on.
For those of you who say it's spyware: You're wrong. 1. The EULA makes it clear, and 2. If it's not sending off the song that you click on, how the hell else will it suggest matches.
And as Berkana said, Tune-alyzer is way more privacy invading than this.
Software Update is as well, because that looks through your entire system for Apple stuff that needs updating.- chimpy72, on 05/22/2008, -0/+0Old article, I know, but just for clarification: Software Update actually only looks through your Receipts folder in Computer/Library/Receipts, and checks the version of the package in there to the corresponding one in Apple's Software Database.
- Essefgy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I hated the Mini Store instantly just because it took up too much screen space.
- natemc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I actually report all my music habits to someone already..
http://last.fm - chicagobiker, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Good grief this mini-store is no different than searching Google or Yahoo and no one freaks out about that!
You click a song and it inputs a music store search based on artist name and album and SENDS you the results of other titles by that artist or similar albums.
Big deal!
How many of you "search" far more personal stuff at Google and have Google return the results to your IP address and their cookie with your Gmail login stored? - jaypeg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0"iTunes is Spyware!"
"Blah, blah, blah, I'm Chicken Noob Little, blah, blah, blah"
Get a grip. I blame Microsoft and Windows for this constant state of fear of the digital realm. They have the crappy, insecure OS and "ecosystem" that breeds the real scary things: drive-by Spyware installs, wmf exploits, etc, etc, etc. No wonder people are always terrified.
So some noob somewhere sees his modem light flashing when he selects an iTune song. Thinks his porn collection and personal info is being sent to Apple or his mother or the CIA. Actually the only thing happening is the name of the selected song artist is being sent to Apple so they can send back a selection of tunes you might like to buy. Sinister -- not. It's actually pretty clever. Don't like it? Turn it off: Edit/Hide MiniStore - canucksin2006, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0None of you got this upset when you started using Pandora to find music.
- muikano, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0what i want to know is the complete list of 6.02 upgrades. It doesnt seem like much of an upgrade if it's just hte mini bar. Video Podcast playback on my Itunes is still choppy. Well, i do have google desktop, Azureus and dc++ on at the same time but still, my other players aren't jumpy, no reason quicktime should be.
- SaintStryfe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Bye-the-way... a confirmed source inside apple, according to MacOSXHints.com says that no data is collected - simply recieved, processed, and deleted... no collection. Just processed.
- Arru, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Except for sources and all, the heading says "will not send info to Apple" as in not sending info to Apple. If this is spyware then Apple are way ahead technologically...
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