Why iTunes downloads don't use HTTPS

As TFA points out, Macs have a built in service for caching content downloaded from Apple's various servers that can be turned on in the sharing tab of the control panel on the Mac you would like to adopt this role.

The other Macs and iDevices on your network will detect the caching server and start using it instead of overloading your WAN link every time a large file like a new OS version or OS update needs to be distributed.

Encryption would interfere with caching.

More information on content caching:

https://www.idownloadblog.com/2018/07/17/howto-mac-content-c...

Even if the downloads where encrypted, an all seeing observer could probably still detect what you download. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14070130 as an example. I'm not sure how easy it would be to fingerprint the entire iTunes database and how unique download sizes would be. Might be an interesting research topic.

I feel like the arguments given here are kind of weak for not implementing HTTPS. Plus, fingerprinting and such can be cirumvented pretty easily by adding padding data to the payload of a random length.

That said, I don't think it matters too terribly much here, and in situations where privacy is much more important, Apple seems to be blowing Google out of the water, since their business model isn't inherently anti-privacy.