Apple Addresses Privacy Concerns

Apple on Wednesday addressed privacy concerns over its iTunes Mini-Store, adding a dialogue that allows users to opt out of the service. The Mini-Store feature came with the launch of iTunes 6.0.2, but was quickly criticized for not explicitly saying it was sending data back to Apple through a third party.

The data collected by the application was being sent to 2o7.net when the Mini-Store was open. The domain is registered to Omniture, a Utah-based company that uses cookies to "generally improve the user experience on the Web." As part of the changes, the Mini-Store must now be activated manually by the user in order to function. A message will now greet the user at first launch, saying "Apple does not keep any information related to the contents of your music Library."