Thoughts 02 Jun 2007 11:39 am
Apple and privacy
A security researcher has warned iTunes customers that Apple encodes the buyer’s account name and e-mail address in the new DRM-free tracks that debuted Wednesday.
It also turns out that Apple has been putting this information in DRM files as well.
Apple did not returns calls asking why iTunes tracks, whether protected by DRM or not, contain buyer data.
eMusic also encodes buyers data in their files.
This process is called watermarking by the industry.
I call it a gross violation of privacy.
Yes they have some reasonable right to protect intellectual property, but this has the smell of marketing and not security.
It would be reasonable to assume that every time an Apple device contacted the internet, this data would be relayed.
After all, the guid M$ uses, is recorded every time you go to one of their affiliates, and of course it contains “no personally identifiable information”, until you register something and it’s added to their database and cross referenced.
It’s not paranoia, they are spying on all of us, our habits and the possibility of using them to sell us something are, as they say, “priceless.”