Originally published February 15 2006
Dirty little secret may damage consumer trust in Apple's iTunes program
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Apple expert Kirk McElhearn spreads the word about a secret iTunes data transfer that may allow Apple to link purchase histories with playlists and a user's personal information.
he new music software includes a "MiniStore" window, which provides recommended links to Apple's music download service when a listener actively clicks on a song in their personal playlist, including songs that haven't been purchased from the iTunes store.
To provide those recommendations, the software sends information about the selected song, such as artist, title and genre, back to Apple.
But the software also transmits a string of data that is linked to a computer user's unique iTunes account ID, computer experts have found.
"If this was Microsoft or RealNetworks, people would be screaming and calling for heads to roll."
Because iTunes users typically sign up for the music store with an e-mail address and a credit card number, the account ID number could in theory be linked to that information, as well as a user's purchase history, said Apple expert Kirk McElhearn, who has published several books on Macintosh computers.
The same number is also used for other Apple products, such as the Apple Developer accounts and the online .Mac accounts, he added.
"I'm an Apple user and an Apple supporter, but this isn't what we expect Apple to do," said McElhearn, who published details about the iTunes data transfer on his Web site.
In a statement, an Apple representative said the company "does not save or store any information used to create recommendations for the MiniStore."
The issue has raised eyebrows particularly high in the community of Apple computer users, though the new feature is also included in the Windows-based iTunes.
Macintosh users have typically not been exposed to many of the advertising-supported or adware programs that are common in the Windows world, and which routinely raise privacy concerns through poorly disclosed data exchanges.
As of Thursday morning, the license agreements distributed with iTunes did not disclose the exchange of any data tied to song information or users' personal accounts.
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