Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!jwt!john
From: john@jwt.UUCP (John Temples)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Is Prodigy safe to use?
Message-ID: <1990Dec18.182137.2321@jwt.UUCP>
Date: 18 Dec 90 18:21:37 GMT
References: <80330004@hpl-opus.hpl.hp.com> <1990Dec16.031022.22166@jwt.UUCP> <1990Dec17.171847.14470@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Organization: Private System -- Orlando, FL
Lines: 41

In article <1990Dec17.171847.14470@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) writes:
>In article <1990Dec16.031022.22166@jwt.UUCP> john@jwt.UUCP (John Temples) writes:
>>What's so special about Prodigy's software that people are singling
>>it out as "dangerous?"

>Yes, but this can only happen once for each porgram you buy - and
>it would quickly get out to the whole world if it actually happened
>because things like what you attribute to Microsoft are quite 
>noticeable.

Why would it "get out to the whole world" any less quickly if Prodigy
did it?

>But Prodigy can do it selectively, at any time they feel like. They can
>steal programs off your disk. They can survey your disk to see what
>programs are on it, and then, for example, sell your "user profile"
>to advertisers who will flood you with junk mail. Etc.

You make it sound as though Prodigy already has the software in place
to do these things.

>Using Prodigy is exactly like using a Unix system and turning off
>ALL forms of protection - let anybody logged on do anything they wish.

Substitude "MS-DOS" for "Prodigy" in the above sentence...

>If I connect my PC to some other computer, I want to be very sure
>that there is some security. Right now I am running Telnet on my PC.
>There is no way to log in from the outside. You can, if you wish,
>right now, do ftp to my PC. But you need the password. I have no
>idea how good the security is but at least it exists.

If you have no idea how good the security is, how does its mere
existence make you feel any better?  Why do you have more faith in
the author of Telnet than in the author of Prodigy?  See my original
question above, "What's so special about Prodigy's software..."  I
fail to see the direct correlation between the recent behavior of
Prodigy management and the likelihood of a disgruntled Prodigy
employee stealing programs from people's disks.
-- 
John W. Temples -- john@jwt.UUCP (uunet!jwt!john)