iSee What You Are Listening To

[iTunes,iTMS, Apple]

As TUAW.com pointed out today, iTunes 6.0.2 now has
a 'MiniStore' to recommend other tracks based on
what you are currently listen to. What several people
quickly noticed is that now Apple knows every song
you are playing, bought from them or not.

I am not all that paranoid, (I use iTunes to mainly
listen to NPR podcasts) but is this really needed?

Actually, I object more to how ugly it makes the window
when open (which came up "on" by default on my
PowerBook)than on the privacy front. Between this and
those grey store-link arrows (which I immediately turned
off), iTunes is getting to look like the Vegas Strip.

Your mileage may vary, but it also took me some time to
figure out how to turn it off- silly me was looking in
the Preferences menu.

By the way- word on the 'net is that turning off the
MiniStore also turns off the data flowing to Apple. Still,
all this made for quite a not-so-warm feeling toward 'the
Mothership' today.

http://tuaw.com/2006/01/10/new-ministore-in-itunes-6-0-2/