iTunes Spies On Users' Music Preferences

Steve Jobs doesn't only get to be congratulated and receive rounds of applause for launching this and that. This time the media is entitled to point fingers at Jobs and Apple for the latest version of iTunes, which can keep track of a user's listening habits.

The latest update of the software, launched on January 10, includes a feature that recommends users tracks similar to the music being played via iTunes when they access the music service.

Customers of the iTunes service didn't exactly appreciate the way Apple gathers information and somewhat manipulates the user into buying a certain song or album. Still, Apple said it did not keep any data stored after it made recommendations.

The latest iTunes includes a MiniStore feature that recommends tracks to buy similar to those a user is listening to. This feature searches similar tracks when a user plays a tune in the playlist. It even makes recommendations about songs that were not bought via the hugely popular online music store. When the MiniStore is hidden, this data is not sent to the iTunes Music Store