Kicked out of my office (we're moving), I spent more time working --and procrastinating --at home. I updated my ITunes program on my home computer (which controls the loading of ipods, for those who don't know). And ITunes invited me to add the "genius bar" to the program, and I did.The genius bar is basically an interior decorator for your music. It tells you what songs you have go well together, and it suggests new songs --which you can purchase at the ITunes store-- to make your collection more aesthetically complete. (Well, not quite--it doesn't tell you to junk your music collection altogether and develop some better taste. If you like the musical equivalent of orange and purple plaid, it will give you more orange and purple--and maybe add a dash of pink.)In order to access the genius bar, you need to let Apple rummage around in your ITunes folder. I don't care that Apple knows that I have two songs by Five for Fighting on my ipod. At the same time, the whole thing makes me vaguely uneasy--not only the privacy thing, but the idea that they know what I like before I do. It's individually targeted advertising.Anybody else have the same reaction?
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