October 24, 2006
MOG: Thanks for Agreeing… and Oh, by the way…
MOG has both a typically over-verbose TOS that must be agreed to upon registration.
Read-it-or-not, you’d think a 20-point ‘Terms of Use‘ — complete with lame attempts at being Web 2-point-cute — would lay it all down.
Activate registration (“We’re glad to have you in da hizzy”) and download the MOG-O-MATIC widget — the app that puts Mog in line to compete with the likes of Last.fm — (“It’s FREE and contains no Spyware or Adware.”) that they hit you.
The 17-point license for installing MOG-O-Matic mentions Gracenote by name, noting that it “enables this application to do online disc and music file identification and obtain music-related information, including name, artist, track, and title information (“Gracenote Data”) from online servers (“Gracenote Servers”), and to perform other functions.” [emphasis added]
Gracenote TUID — has been used for years to recognize artist/titles, etc of audio files in winamp, Napster and elsewhere. So you agree.
But immediately upon install, the application gathers and submits your information using the You agreed to this, but you did not necessarily agree to submit this data in exchange for targeted advertising.
Only in the privacy policy can you find out how to disable:
The TUID allows MOG-O-MATIC to retrieve this information efficiently. Data regarding the specific content you are playing is retained until you have removed your MOG account. You have the option to turn this feature off by right clicking on the MOG icon in your system tray on a PC or via System Preferences on your Mac. MOG-O-MATIC data is collected to serve targeted advertising to you.
Readers: please comment and feel free to contribute your own tale of EULA/waiver/consent astonishment via email or this form.
