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Originally Posted by Colin Dunstan
This screenshot doesn't look faked, so yes, I believe it's a fact. A whois on 207.net reveals:
Organization:
Omniture Inc.
Omniture DNSAdmin
550 E. Timpanogos Circle
Orem, UT 84097
US
Phone: 801-722-7000
Fax..: 801-722-7001
Email: dnsadmin@omniture.com
And from what I can tell, Omniture is not a subsidiary of Apple, so yes, it's a 3rd party.
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OK, so it's a third-party partner of Apple's. They're bound by Apple's privacy policy, and in their privacy policy, Apple states this:
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“There are also times when it may be advantageous for Apple to make certain personal information about you available to companies that Apple has a strategic relationship with or that perform work for Apple to provide products and services to you on our behalf. These companies may help us process information, extend credit, fulfill customer orders, deliver products to you, manage and enhance customer data, provide customer service, assess your interest in our products and services, or conduct customer research or satisfaction surveys. These companies are also obligated to protect your personal information in accordance with Apple’s policies. Without such information being made available, it would be difficult for you to purchase products, have products delivered to you, receive customer service, provide us feedback to improve our products and services, or access certain services, offers, and content on the Apple website.”
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Bottom line: Should Apple make this clearer ? Yes, and they probably will, especially after this. Are they violating their own privacy policy, SLA, and TOS? In my opinion, no.
Apple has
told Macworld that the data is discarded after the Mini-Store is updated.
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The good news is, Apple tells us that the information is not actually being collected. The data sent is used to update the MiniStore and then discarded. If you think about it, this makes sense—imagine the size of the data files they would accumulate with millions of users and what must be hundreds of millions of songs played each day. But Apple should tell us as much, so that we can all relax a bit about sharing our listening habits with Apple.
Apple should amend iTunes to clearly disclose what data the program is transmitting and how it’s being used. There should be a dialog box that pops up the first time iTunes runs, explaining exactly how the MiniStore works. If Apple had just included that yesterday — or even some information in the Read Me, then I wouldn’t have even raised this as an issue. A little transparency and openness can go a long way to easing privacy fears.
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Agreed.