Comments on: Why I won’t buy an iPod

By: kel

kel — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 18:29:28 +0000

for crying out loud. dont u get it? all that apple is saying is they can give out ur music buying habits and sell them to other companies. they just put in the government part to make it soung legit.!

By: Sean

Sean — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 05:36:23 +0000

“If you still disagree, go get your JD, then come back and explain to me the error of my statements.”

I’ve spotted at least two.

“This sentence has nothing whatsoever to do with any (questionably) legal requests from a government agency.”

This “questionably” — that’s untrue. Any information that iTunes compiles on you through you buying products is public enough that a government agency can certainly make legal requests for it. This is the same as you going to a store and buying something; the government can get any information you gave the clerk, and any information off your credit card from your company. So, right there, you’re wrong; there’s nothing questionable about their rights there.

“This sentence — in essence — warns that Apple may actively or passively monitor you and should you do something which seems suspicious to Apple, they’ll call up DHS, FBI, and anyone else they feel like and tell ‘em all about you.”

Right here, when you say “they will call up”, it does not say that at all. It simply says that they might. Now, it should be prima facie obvious that no human being is monitoring the downloads at Apple, because that would be impossible and unneccessarily complicated. So, reasonably, any monitoring being done is via computer, searching for patterns. And we already know that Apple is doing that, looking for patterns, monitoring patterns. The better their software gets at identifying patterns, the more profitable their system will be. So their goal, in theory, should be 100% accuracy, right? Now, they can’t acheive 100%, but they can already, even without 100%, get pretty freakily accurate about a person if they have enough data…

Basically, what that clause *actually* says is that, if Apple computers flag you based on the patterns of music that you listen to, it’s possible that your information will be passed along. It’s not like a confession booth; if you download a thousand songs by Prussian Blue, then I believe Apple should forward your name to get put on an appropriate white supremacist list, just as quickly as if you bought a thousand subscriptions to some sort of white supremacist literature.

By: Sean

Sean — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 05:23:52 +0000

“Now if you can come up with some legitimate “national security” reason why the government might need to know what sort of music I listen to, then by all means make the attempt.”

Given that there is certain music which is known to appeal exclusively to white supremacist groups — various forms of metal specifically about white supremacy, I mean — is it unreasonable to think that there is Arab music which is specifically no-bones-about-it pro-terrorist?

Since we all know that the government keeps lists on people with certain beliefs, and given that the reason for keeping these lists is that the general violent nature of the people with those beliefs, I don’t personally have a problem with the idea that Apple would do that. Evidence like that could be the thing that helps get somebody sent away longer after beating a black guy to death, the thing that proves that the crime was racially motivated.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 04:24:16 +0000

I don’t even think the part of the agreement that reads:
“We may also disclose information about you if we determine that for national security, law enforcement, or other issues of public importance, disclosure is necessary.”
is about actual disclosure to the government if asked. This is basically saying they can monitor you, sell your purchasing habits to anyone they want, and you can be Advertisement ridden for the rest of your life. “Public importance” could very well be Apple’s best interest and consist of making other public companies aware of your purchases or listening habits. That may not be what it’s intended for. HOWEVER if Apple chooses to sell your info to whomever, according to a court’s decision, they are able to do so… Just my $.02…

By: William R. James

William R. James — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 15:04:20 +0000

Apple has lok=ng been known for spamming. I have their entire range of IPs entirely blocked and had them blocked for years because they wouldn’t cease spamming my addresses. And, no, I’ve never bought anything from Apple and never gave them any address for any purpose, so they don’t just spam their own customers lke eBay and Spamazon, they harvest addresses or purchase them from other spammers.

By: J'raxis

J'raxis — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 16:52:28 +0000

The second sentence is bullshit. But like someone else said, the first sentence is just Apple stating the law to cover their ass, and doing such actually helps protect people who might have otherwise done something illegal and not realized they were being watched.

I’d actually love to see more businesses do things like this. “WARNING: It is ILLEGAL to use this service to … Per 18 USC 123456, we are LEGALLY REQUIRED to report such activity to the federal government and cooperate with any investigations.”

Then you wouldn’t read stories about people getting arrested because they posted a call to violence on a forum, or their computer repairman stumbled into their illegal porn collection, or whatever.

By: ?????

????? — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 07:44:43 +0000

I am confused I mean they are the ones selling the songs, shows and broadcast…

By: A-ok

A-ok — Thu, 24 May 2007 17:31:14 +0000

So you think we should not buy an ipod because….
You suffer with paranoia of someday becoming a terrorist or possibly already are one and you are trying to say your squirrelly wrath will all be destroyed by the Apple Corporation? Hmmmmm. Interesting …Sorry I’m still not convinced.

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 06 May 2007 23:36:52 +0000

You have something to hide?

By: Fred

Fred — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 01:09:32 +0000

Hi. I would suggets you go with the Creative Zen Vision M:. Thay are great Mp3 players. I have the 30gb model which has FM radio & recorder, plays quite a few video formats,(xvid,divx,mpeg4,etc). It has a voice recorder and does picures too. There’s also a 60gb version out now. You won’t be disappointed.

By: unknown

unknown — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 17:28:04 +0000

Apple probably has this for piracy reasons.. which I could almost guarentee is THE reason. The same reason you cannot transfer music from an ipod to your itunes. Also why itunes exists, so that digital music is being paid for not stolen. Then again who wants anyone checking on my music listening habits, so they could “know” more about me and figure out what more they can sell me. So let them try to learn all about me, because in the end they won’t know a thing. My possesions do not define me, so im not worried..

By: Michael Hampton

Michael Hampton — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 05:29:29 +0000

I don’t keep all that information. This site’s too sensitive for that.

I just show it to you, so that you know what information YOU are giving to every web site YOU visit and can test your privacy protection software.

By: iPodette

iPodette — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 05:25:18 +0000

You should see the data that this site collects.

By: iPodette

iPodette — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 05:23:11 +0000

PS – That’s right, Al Gore being on Apple’s board is enough to creep me out, but I still have a fleet of Macs and several iPods because they are the best.

By the way, you should SEE all the data THIS site collects from users!

By: iPodette

iPodette — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 05:13:43 +0000

I think it’s mostly to foil people who steal music, not to weed out potential terrorists. What kind of music would be accurately indicative of someone being a terrorist anyway?