By AppleInsider Staff
Published: 12:00 PM EST
Apple on Wednesday responded to claims that its new iTunes 'MiniStore' feature is akin to spyware by remotely disabling the feature on all installed copies of the latest digital jukebox software.
On relaunch, iTunes 6.0.2
now offers a dialogue allowing users to decide whether to enable the "MiniStore" feature, which reports information about each song a user listens to in iTunes, notes
MacNN.
Apple
released iTunes 6.0.2 on January 10th, but two days later avid Mac users discovered that the software quietly communicated playlist information over the Internet, both to Apple and to a company based in Orem, Utah.
The MiniStore now displays an information pane on the first connect to it, explaining what data is transmitted, and telling the user how to toggle its visibility. It also confirms that when the MiniStore is disabled, that no data is transmitted at all. This update was performed on Apple's servers, leaving user installations untouched.
The latest version of iTunes now displays the following note via its interface: "The iTunes MiniStore allows you to discover new music and videos right from your iTunes Library. As you select items in your Library, information about that item is sent to Apple and the MiniStore will show you related songs or videos. Apple does not keep any information related to the contents of your music Library."
