“The latest version of Apple Computer Inc.’s popular iTunes software scans a computer’s digital music collection and recommends new songs to buy — a feature blasted by privacy advocates as electronic snooping,” Dawn C. Chmielewski reports for The Los Angeles Times. “But futurists said Apple’s MiniStore hinted at the sort of customized online experience that Internet boosters have been promising for nearly a decade. The so-called push technology uses the Internet to deliver news updates, traffic reports or music picks to a computer desktop.”

“The MiniStore and its spontaneous music recommendations illustrate how push technology is taking hold. The latest version of Apple’s OS X operating system and Microsoft Corp.’s next iteration of the Windows operating system feature “widgets,” compact information retrievers that deliver up-to-theminute weather and stock reports,” Chmielewski reports. “When users play a song in iTunes, the MiniStore software displays a list of albums that can be purchased by the same artist along the bottom of the window. It also shows what other listeners who like the song purchased. A spokesman said Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple did not save or store any of the information used to create recommendations for the MiniStore. And users can disable the feature.”

“‘Surveys that deal with Generation X and younger indicate these audiences love this stuff. They are not concerned at all with the privacy aspects of this stuff,’ said Rob Enderle, founder of Enderle Group, a technology consulting firm,” Chmielewski reports. “‘They just don’t have the same sensibilities. As long as nobody uses that information against them, they don’t have any problem as long as it makes the experience better.’”

Full article here.

[UPDATE: 12:45pm ET: Fixed typo in headline.]
Note: If you wish, you can disable the ability to show the MiniStore by disabling the iTunes Music Store in Parental Controls. You can show or hide the MiniStore by choosing Show MiniStore or Hide MiniStore in the Edit menu or by clicking the “Show or Hide the MiniStore” button (bottom right of iTunes interface). 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.

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