Privacy watchers are blaming Apple for eavesdropping on its users through its latest software update to iTunes. The new version of the popular music software scans a computer's digital music
collection and recommends new songs to buy. An executive at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, speaking to the
Los Angeles Times, criticized Apple's failure to disclose exactly what the new
technology does to its users. Of course others say exactly the opposite: that the new service is prelude to the sort of customized online experience Internet advocates have been promising for the last
ten years. In fact, according to the article, this is the kind of push technology that could lead to the next generation of customized, relevant information on the Internet. Microsoft, for instance,
plans to deploy similar technology in its next iteration of Windows. A market research analyst said younger users who have grown up in the age of cookies and pop-up ads don't tend to care when
companies track and store information about them, as long as the services they provide are relevant.
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