Gracenote automatic connection - can I turn off or complain to Apple?

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Level 1

0 points

Gracenote automatic connection - can I turn off or complain to Apple?

Just yesterday had my first experience with iTunes6 automatically connecting and downloading track info from Gracenote.

1. Can I disable this? (besides messing around with the firewall - no offense dougsscripts)
(And don't suggest I just allow it. I prefer to use my own system for all my classical music.)

2. If not, is there an effective way to complain to Apple about this?

Out of curiousity:
3. Anyone know for sure what info gets uploaded to Apple or Gracenote?

4. Anyone know why Apple removed the ability to disable this?
Did they make an exclusive agreement with Gracenote that locked them in?
Are they planning on using this info to track pirating in some way?

5. Did I agree somewhere in a click-license to allow this?

Titanium Powerbook Mac OS X (10.4.7) iTunes 6.0.4(3)

Posted on Jul 17, 2006 5:16 PM

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Answer 1

Marty J

Level 4

3,020 points

Jul 17, 2006 5:37 PM in response to dmaus

You could always use Little Snitch to block iTunes when it tries to contact Gracenote. If you'd like to have a look at Apple's Customer Privacy Policy, you can do so here:

http://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/

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Answer 2

Jul 24, 2006 8:31 PM in response to Marty J

If you go into Home\Library\Preferences, and trash the com.apple.iTunes.plist, empty the trash, and then re-open iTunes. You will then be taken through the license agreement and setup. Uncheck anything having to do with connecting to the internet, choose DO NOT modify my internet settings, and let er rip from there. Aside from that. I know of no way to disable the CDDB connection. I do know that CDDB does not gather any information from your system, other than the number of tracks, length of each track, and the order of the tracks for the disc in the drive at the moment. This is the information needed to ID the disc. No hardware, IP address, or system information is required, and non is polled in a CDDB lookup.

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Answer 3

Jul 24, 2006 8:48 PM in response to dmaus

dmaus,

I don't know why Apple choose to get rid of the option to turn off iTunes ability to connect to the internet.

One workaround, I suppose, would be to simply shut down your internet connection while you are ripping CDs.

Matt

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Answer 4

Oct 12, 2006 2:59 AM in response to CowboyNAZ

There is no option no to connect to the Internet automatically during the setup process (only something about Internet radio).

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Answer 5

Oct 12, 2006 8:04 PM in response to dmaus

Go to Preferences->Advanced-> Importing. Uncheck the box that says "Automatically Retrieve CD track names from Internet".

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Answer 6

dmaus Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 12, 2007 6:48 PM in response to dmaus

iTunes7 brought back the ability to opt out of downloading CD track names from gracenote/cddb

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