Apple Backs Down in Privacy Flap

Some consumer advocates protested when it was realized the feature was included in the latest iTunes by default and that it transmitted data associated with iTunes' customers unique ID number back to Apple.

In response, the company has announced it will offer a modified version of the program with a dialog box that asks consumers for permission to activate the feature. Apple noted that it does not keep additional information related to consumer purchases.

A First Step

These overtures are a good first step, Electronic Frontier Foundation spokesperson Rebecca Jeschke told MacNewsWorld. "Apple, though, can and should do more."

For example, it would be good to know exactly what information is being passed back and forth between a consumer's iTunes' music store and Apple's database, she said, and how that information is being protected.

"The MiniStore is not a bad program -- that is not what we are saying. Consumers, though, have a right to know what is happening with their information," Jeschke argued.

What They Know About You

iTunes has expanded the material it offers -- now selling books online, for instance, as well as episodes of TV shows and an increasingly widening selection of videos. Someone accessing this information could deduce much about an individual's tastes and preferences, Jeschke pointed out.

Music and TV tastes are hardly sensitive information, of course, at least to most people. Still, consumers have to draw the line with companies, Jeschke maintained, especially as data-mining technologies become ever more robust. Other concerns include identity theft and, more broadly, the government's use of such data.

First the MiniStore, Then District Court

Coincidentally, on the same day that Apple announced it would modify its MiniStore, the U.S. Justice Department filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to compel Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) to provide all queries entered into its Web-search system last June and July to support a case it is making against online pornographers.

Google is fighting the subpoena.

"There are a lot of reasons why Apple -- and all companies -- need to make these processes as transparent as possible," Jeschke said. Legal and identity issues are some. "More basic though, not having them or trying to circumvent them shows a lack of respect for their customers."