I never got any screen warning me about any of this either. Such stuff really bugs me, much like having to have a Google account to activate an Android phone.

Like others here I'd hit 'Unsubscribe' and gotten a 'Failed' return SMS. As it turns out, that's good - it's actually telling you you can't unsbscribe to what you aren't subscribed to. More about that later.

I decided to take a less technical, ordinary-user approach to what could learned about data collection and how to stop it. After all, most N900 owners won't be coming here for which files to delete, etc. Turns out not too much.

Regarding stopping the service...from the MyNokia Support FAQ:

"Q: How can I opt out of receiving communications from My Nokia?

A: You can opt out of receiving My Nokia communications at any time. The easiest way is to go to nokiausa.com/mynokia and log in to your My Profile section. You may also opt out via SMS by sending the text “STOP” to 21342."

I sent a 'STOP' message to 21342. No reply, nothing happened.

I already have an Ovi acccount so I went to nokiausa.com/mynokia and logged in successfuly using my Ovi ID and password. That took me to a registration page already partially filled out but only with what little information I had given when I registered for Ovi - name and email address but nothing else - no phone number, home address, gender, birthday etc. Could not find a 'My Profile' section. A little more mucking around and it was clear I couldn't find My Profile because I didn't have one. IOW I had not automatically been registered for My Nokia. If I wanted into it, i would have to complete the registration form and choose to opt in. That's Good.

Regarding data collection...other than reading a short story that is the Terms of Conditions in Settings > My Nokia I never found any additional information - using normal means, understand - about exactly what info had been collected and sent or how to stop it. Nothing technical at all. That's Bad.

I'm pretty security-paranoid usually. It was a primary consideration in switching from Windoze to linux 11 years ago. it's one of several reasons I'll never own another Android phone. But I admit after learning all I could here and elsewhere I'm not particularly alarmed about this. The Big Brother quotient going on is still much less than Google or Apple. Just smells really bad more than anything.