This is Not Cool: "iTunes Update Spies On You"

For many of us who have accepted the iPod and iTunes into our homes, the current buzz going around is that the updated iTunes, version 6.0.2, is spying on its users, and relaying information back to Apple without the user's explicit (or even implicit) consent. Boing Boing has put a post that that really makes the point:

I love iTunes because it's a clean music player. But no amount of clean UI is worth surrendering my privacy for -- I wouldn't buy a stereo that phoned home to Panasonic and told it what I was listening to; I wouldn't buy a shower radio that delivered my tuning preferences to Blaupunkt. I certainly am not comfortable with Apple shoulder-surfing me while I listen to digital music, particularly if they're doing so without my meaningful, informed consent and without disclosing what they intend on doing with that data.

First there was the change in the end-user's ability to 'manage' the "Fairplay" DRM if one updated to iTunes 6.0. Now this? Apple is just like any other large tech company that needs to learn how to treat its new customers so they become its loyal customers.