Word is out that Apple Computer’s latest version of iTunes scans a computer’s digital music collection and recommends new songs to buy, which privacy advocates say is tantamount to electronic snooping!

Apple released its iTunes 6.0.2 earlier this week. Among the new features is MiniStore, a Music Store panel that appears below library track lists. Reportedly many users turned MiniStore off after using it; others spotted sudden increases in network activity when the feature was enabled.

The reason that MiniStore was turned-off is apparently that the feature utilizes what the user is listening to, and displays a series of related albums and songs that the person might like to buy. This has led consumers to think that MiniStore is somewhat like spyware, so much so that Apple responded saying that not only does the feature not record the data it grabs, but that no such data is sent back to the ITMS servers.

Interestingly Apple’s support Knowledge Base shows an entry dated before the new version of iTunes was released, telling users how to turn on and off the MiniStore feature. The document appears to have been modified later, and now says that iTunes sends data about the song selected in your library, to the iTunes Music Store to provide relevant recommendations. When the MiniStore is hidden, this data is not sent to the iTunes Music Store.

Jason Schultz, staff attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), said that Apple should come clean regarding the matter, and that they owe it to their user base to be honest.

However futurists say that MiniStore offers the kind of customized online experience, that Internet boosters have been promising for nearly a decade.
Also there is growing evidence that an increasing number of young adults actually find features like MiniStore helpful, and not in the least bit offensive.