iTunes 3 spyware?

M

monotheisM

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iTunes 3 spyware?

Am I the only one who see's that this wonderful little program is spying on us? Why would I care to rate my songs? Why would I care what 25 songs are played the most? Most of us don't, But the Record Industry(RIAA) does.

Those evil little demons working for the RIAA really want to know what songs we're playing("Top 25 Most Played", "Recently Played"), how often we play them("Play Count"), and most importantly how much we like these songs("My Rating"). Why would they want this information you might ask? So that the RIAA has a MUCH better demographic of what people are doing with there music, So they can generate more money selling us products, The holly Dollar. If they know what songs we enjoy the most, then they can increase the marketing and production of related products that we the sheep, the consumer will likely purchase. All this info stored in a small iTunes file for discreet sending away to Apple.
I don't know about you, But Im 100% not ok with big business spying on me, my computer, What I do and when I do it is none of there friggn business.
I have no explanation of why Apple would be involved in such a dirty back stabbing plan as this downright invasion of our privacy, maybe something to do with the iPod licensing, I don't know. What I do know is that this is wrong and should be stopped.

Now that this theory is out in the air, what should the next step be?, Yet again I have not a answer, Just a comment on the state of the mac union.

...

Just because your paranoid doesn't mean that there not out to get you.
 
the question is whether the program is sending that info to anyone or not.

there is a whole ton of information any program in any os could theoretically be sending out.

what about your browser history file? your bookmark list? the list goes on and on im sure.
 
Whoa whoa whoa, you're awefully paranoid about this. If you don't like iTunes 3, and if you suspect even that iTunes 2 might be doing some mischievious information transmitting, you can always go back to Mac OS X Public Beta. If you don't have it, I'll sell you mine for $30.00 plus shipping & handling. Or, or, ahh...you can always use Mac OS 9, maybe even 8.x (I seem to recall a hack for Mac OS 8.x that allowed iTunes 1 to run on that).

Chill dude...Now that this "idea" is out in the open, maybe some clever UNIX head here on MacOSX.com can do some reverse engineering or hacking around to see if your suspicions hold true. I have nothing to worry about, I make nearly all my MP3s. I have nothing to hide, and I don't listen to "main stream" music anyway. The RIAA isn't interested in my Classical Jazz, Smooth Jazz, and Classical musical collection. They're interested in knowing if I listen to nSync, The Back Door Boys, "Busty" Spears, and whatever other teenie-boppers are out there that I will never listen to.

If you really want to know, try running NetStatInDock with an internet connection open, then launch iTunes. If you see a "blip" of info sent OUT, then something might be going on. The other scenario is that this info is sent only when you're cruising the web, masked under the traffic of your cruising other websites, or that it is slowly building a database to be later submitted, perhaps once a month. Yeah, YEAH, THAT'S IT!!! It's a secret Casey Casome top 40 Coundown!!! Or, or, yeah....the Weekly Top 40 with Rick Dees...So that's where all that information comes from...I've always wondered about that...hmm....

Wow, I'm glad I finally figured this out, thanks dude. You've inspired my imagination.
 
every one is paranoid today. the OS 9 no longer being supported ppl, you the iTunes person, and even the ppl on TV (outer limits :D)

but if you want to be sure just read through the privisy statment (sorry it's late ><)
 
Have you read anything about the RIAA in the Agreement you clicked "Agree" when installing iTunes 3 ?
 
Originally posted by toast
Have you read anything about the RIAA in the Agreement you clicked "Agree" when installing iTunes 3 ?
Click to expand...

Nope, I just clicked "Agree" like almost everyone else. What does it say about the RIAA?
 
I dont know. I'm like everyone else :).
I just hope the paranoids around here read the agreements to know their rights ;) !
Because it would be stupid to worry about spyware and not reading the agreements where the whole point about privacy and liberty is detailed…
 
Originally posted by chemistry_geek
maybe even 8.x (I seem to recall a hack for Mac OS 8.x that allowed iTunes 1 to run on that).
Click to expand...
there was, with the original title "iTunes for OS 8"
 
Your suspicions hold no ground.

I just went into Network Utility and watched the "Sent Packets" field as I launched iTunes. Nothing changed.
 
My router connects when any Mac wants online and stays connected for an hour. It has not connected using iTunes only (unless I'm getting CD track names), so I'm pretty sure iTunes doesn't spy on me.
however, I like the most played list.

You can delete those lists, can't you?
 
Testuser, if I'm asked wether or not I want to submit my stats I'll gladly submit. If the RIAA wishes to go for my personal taste in music I'll be happy to rid them of many no-good artists out there. If, however, someone could present evidence that Apple were selling this behind my back, that would be the day I got rid of my Mac.

As I said, this piece of info doesn't bother me one bit, but if a company (Apple or other) sold stats off of MY system wthout my full awareness and acceptance I would not want them to control my computer.
 
I just assumed that Apple was showing off (although not too spectacularly) some new metadata capabilities. I'm sure it's possible (or will be soon with an SDK?) to come up with your own custom sorting criteria. Anybody know more on that angle? There's a whole world of possibilities if you can extract some meaningful pattern from someone's listening habits. That would let you play music that someone might want to hear, rather than randomly stepping through static playlists.

One of the biggest shortcomings of the current P2P/MP3 scene is that it's hard to get exposed to new stuff that, because you've never heard of it, you can't/don't search for it. I'm just grasping at straws here (no, really?) but if I'm even halfway right it could mean that Apple is actually *innovating* rather than just refining the MP3 player. Let's hope, huh?

As an example of connections not yet made, I heard a song I liked on TexasFlood Radio. I had to do a Google search based on some lyrics just to find the artist's name. Something's missing from this equation, ya know?

And I agree with other posters: if the RIAA wants my listening data, they can have it. I'd love for them to start realizing that people like music with *feeling* and a strong backbeat played on real instruments, and sung on-key. (Okay, I'm just dreaming on that one.)
 
I'd love for them to start realizing that people like music with *feeling* and a strong backbeat played on real instruments, and sung on-key. (Okay, I'm just dreaming on that one.)
Click to expand...
it was called rock and roll back in its day:D

any clues as to any bands that play that kind of stuff today would be greatly appreciated ;)
 
I really like the Vines, but that's released on Capitol Records so it defeats the "escape the RIAA" mindset. Get it at target for only 9 bucks tho, so not bad.

iTunes 3 finally became usable, whereas the past versions were not. but I still revert back to command line mp3 player called mpg123 every once in a while. I tend to agree that iTunes can let the RIAA know I'm listening to good music, but I also get somewhat paranoid about people knowing stuff about me. Especially the RIAA. Considering they have pushed many bills asking for the legal right to hack into our computers and remove material it deems bad.
 
well this is very interesting and all, but all this paranoia makes no sense. i generally use iTunes3 when i'm not connected to the internet. without that connection, there's nothing to worry about. and it's not like iTunes3 forces you to connect, or anything.

regardless, even if iTunes3 was spyware (which i seriously, seriously doubt) then all the RIAA and all them would learn about me is that i like to listen to my own band more then anything else. :)
 
Originally posted by Ed Spruiell

it was called rock and roll back in its day:D

any clues as to any bands that play that kind of stuff today would be greatly appreciated ;)
Click to expand...

Barenaked Ladies. Best rock band around today. 5 studio albums and still going...

And, hey, I would LOVE it if the RIAA saw that I have all of my Barenaked Ladies and Beatles albums on my computer. Maybe they'd get a clue that they need to promote ALL types of music, not just pop-stars who don't write their own music and shake their butts onstage.
 
y'know, not that I really give a crap about this and am all paranoid like the thread starter, but regardless of whether iTunes is open or not, it could send your information. Remember that all the iApps are semi integrated with the OS itself, and since Apple makes it , and WANTS to send that data, they could send it from the system level instead of iTunes itself, so whether iTunes is open or not is irrelevant. Even with a simple script compiled your mac could be instructed to send the data file storing your preferred songlists to the destination system at the moment it detects a connection, simple. just my .02
 
I'd just like to say that the theory is completely ungrounded. Why rate songs? So the new Smart Playlists can pick songs that you like over the ones you don't. And the lists that come with it aren't permanent (thank God, who wants "60's Music" sitting there?). If you really want to know what data, if any, iTunes is sending to the net, run a packet sniffer and watch as *nothing* happens...Unless, of course, you are playing Internet Radio, but that's just to get the songs and crap.

Now, for a fact: Some of Adobe's programs do have Spyware. They've had it in Photoshop since version 6.1, I believe. It finds out if your serial number has already been used, and if so, saves your IP on a huge list they've compiled for the nice folks at the FBI. :D Watch out software pirates, they're making it harder on you!
 
Originally posted by cloudsuper
y'know, not that I really give a crap about this and am all paranoid like the thread starter, but regardless of whether iTunes is open or not, it could send your information. Remember that all the iApps are semi integrated with the OS itself, and since Apple makes it , and WANTS to send that data, they could send it from the system level instead of iTunes itself, so whether iTunes is open or not is irrelevant. Even with a simple script compiled your mac could be instructed to send the data file storing your preferred songlists to the destination system at the moment it detects a connection, simple. just my .02
Click to expand...

I was just thinking, this would be sooooo easy to do with a cron task. Set it up so that it runs 4x a day, checks to see if an internet connection exists, if it does, send the data. So easy to do, and iTunes wouldn't even need to be running. If Apple wanted to increase the chances of sending the data, when iTunes is launched, it could run the cron task to see if the internet connection exists. Now, aren't we all glad that I gave Apple this idea, if it didn't already have it, and it probably did anyway?
 
I, for one, like the "60's Music" playlist. I have created similar playlists for the 70's, 80's, and 90's. Not sure what to call the next decade. I replaced almost all of my (almost 20) playlists with smart playlists, and I love them! I have 5000+ mp3's, and my only problem with year-based playlists has been that many of my songs don't have the year, or have the wrong year (like 9999) or are from "Best Of ..." playlists, where '70's songs and the like are listed as 199x.
As for good bands, if you like Barnaked Ladies, you might like Great Big Sea, or Splendourbog (a now somewhat defunct but great band I found on mp3.com). Actually, the best advice I can give is to go to mp3.com, enter an artist (from any decade) you like in the search field, and click search. Now, on the results page, there is a table with search options. Click on the one that says "similar artists". Many good artists have not signed up with big record companies, and so their songs are downloadable mp3's so you can check 'em out, and if you only like one song, keep it, and if you like more maybe buy their CD.
 
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