Ah, here that little rascal is, the "Apple Software Update" utility that installed itself when I installed Quicktime. Let's see, right under the Edit menu, then Preferences, I see the following:
You can select to check for updates automatically. If you do, Apple Software Update will notify you when an update is available. How often would you like to check for updates?
Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Never
Is this the "datamining" you were accusing Microsoft of? How in the world could Apple do such an evil thing as well?