I quick summary to cleanse away the FUD:
* The Mini Store never scanned your library or your playing habits. It only registered when you manually double-clicked a particular song you wanted to hear.
* That song's information is indeed your personal data, of a sort, but was never stored or tracked by Apple.
* It was however send to the music store servers like a search, to retrieve recommendations. That much is obvious without a warning, but not everyone would stop and think about how the recommendations get there.
* So Apple should have had a note on-screen telling people that's what happens and how to turn it off.
* Now they do have that note.
* But it was always easy to turn it off before too--from the menu or from a button right on the iTunes windows.
* That button isn't new, it was always there. Only the explanatory note is new, and the fact that the Mini Store is turned off by default now.
* And when the Mini Store is turned off, it does no searching and thus sends no data to or from the music store servers. This too was true all along.
* The Mini Store is annoying, wastes screen space, is commercially-motivated (and probably successful), and lacks class. Most people probably turned it off even without an explanation of the recommendation process. It's good that it's off by default now.
* The Mini Store should always have worked this way, showing an explanation before it is used. Apple was wrong not to do that. Even if it was harmless in this case, Apple crossed a line I don't want crossed.
* People complaining to Apple were effective in changing this for the better. I give them credit, not just Apple.
* This was never comparable to Windows spyware which runs all the time and intrudes on your privacy in deep ways and then stores/tracks your behavior over time, with no obvious way to turn it off.
* The fact that Apple could add the note of explanation without using Software Update does not indicate Apple intruding on your machine or changing executable somehow without an admin password. The note is simply called up by the Mini Store, which obviously is delivered remotely. Many other store messages have always been triggered remotely--it's the only way an online store can work.
* In short, your library was never scanned, your music habits were never stored, the annoying Mini Store was always optional, and Apple screwed up by not asking you first--but they've fixed that.
