In all the excitement over iTunes allowing digital rights management-free downloads, people have forgotten that DRM-free doesn’t mean anonymous. CNet News UK reminds us that each iTunes-purchased song (even the free downloads) have your personal account data associated with it, so that the music can be traced back to you. For everything you need to know about DRM, check out Public Knowledge’s guide on it (pdf). 

From CNet News UK:

Although iTunes Plus files feature no copy protection, files downloaded still contain the email address you have registered with iTunes. So although files can physically be shared with, and played by, friends and family, any of your purchases that end up on file-sharing networks, for example, can be traced back to you.

If you’re interested in an easy way to check your own files, find an iTunes Plus file on your computer. Then choose to open it with a text editor (Windows Notepad works fine). It’ll take a while to open and will appear to be full of nonsense text, but if you choose the ‘Find’ option and type in the email address you have registered with the iTunes Store, you’ll find that your DRM-free music is not personal information-free.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 and is filed under Anonymity, Identification, International, Security, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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