Apple has released an update to iTunes, 7.2. If you use iTunes with an iPod you might want to think twice about applying this update. Apparently it adds meta data to the songs that are bought from the iTunes Store to help track their usage. This is to ensure that they are not illegally shared with other users. The purchasers name and email address are embedded in each item purchased from the store. They actually have been for some time, but the method used with this version is different.

This in itself can be worrisome There is certainly potential for malicious misuse of said data. But the worst problem can be that once you buy songs with the iTunes store that contain this new form of data if you try to put songs you have previously bought from the store on your iPod it may reject them. Using iTunes 7.2 it may do that anyway. Plus it seems that using the store with iTunes 7.2 has been problematic.

The last version of iTunes, 7.1, caused enough problems for users that Apple quickly followed that release with 7.1.1. Hopefully they will do the same with this one.