Xref: utzoo comp.org.eff.talk:2278 alt.privacy:485 alt.censorship:2109 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!apple!amdahl!esf00 From: esf00@uts.amdahl.com (Elliott S. Frank) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk,alt.privacy,alt.censorship Subject: Re: Prodigy charged with invading users' privacy (was Re: Lifestyle Information ( was Re: Safeway Stores to Accept Charge) Message-ID: <57M001546bv800@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> Date: 1 May 91 16:40:09 GMT References: <1991Apr20.022809.10259@svc.portal.com> <1991Apr30.143000.17493@cbnewse.att.com> <1991Apr30.184714.4675@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> <1991Apr30.185752.4913@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> Reply-To: esf00@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Elliott S. Frank) Organization: Time Waits for No Man, Processors Wait for the Disk Lines: 52 In article <1991Apr30.185752.4913@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> sbrack@isis.UUCP (Steven S. Brack) writes: >In article <1991Apr30.184714.4675@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> sbrack@isis.UUCP (Me) writes: >>Two articles appeared in comp.dcom.telecom recently: >> >>The first talks about Prodigy apparently uploading information from users >>machines without their knowledge. This information has included programs, >>legal records, & personal documents. > [excerpt from reposted article] > > The danger is Prodigy is uploading STAGE.DAT and taking a look at >your private business. Why? My guess is marketing research, which is >expensive through legitimate channels, and unwelcomed by you and I. >The question now is: Is it on purpose, or a mistake? One caller >theorizes that it is a bug. He looked at STAGE.DAT with a piece of >software he wrote to look at the physical location of data on the hard >disk, and found that his STAGE.DAT file allocated 950,272 bytes of >disk space for storage. > >The orginal author then speculates: > >> So the theory goes, in allocating that disk space, Prodigy >> accidently includes data left after an erasure (As you know, DOS does >> not wipe clean the space that deleted files took on the hard disk, but >> merely marked the space as vacant in the File Allocation Table.) > I was concerned about what the Prodigy software would do back when it first came out. If you read the shrinkwrap license agreement, by signing onto Prodigy (and therefore agreeing to the terms and conditions under which they offer the service), you will find (paraphrased -- I don't have the text of the agreement in front of me) that you *have* agreed to allow them to upload *anything that they want* off your system. If the contents of STAGE.DAT are random and ignored at this point in time, you have still agreed that *whatever* they can find on your system can be uploaded and used for any purpose they desire. [I would hope that someone could find their "little yellow box" and post the text in question -- it would add signal to the signal-to- noise ratio surrounding this issue.] There was a discussion on the license agreement on RISKS when Prodigy first appeared, and the ramifications of the license agreement were explored. As you might expect, I never did log on to Prodigy. -- Elliott Frank ...!{uunet,sun}!amdahl!esf00 (408) 746-6384 or ....!esf00@amdahl.com [the above opinions are strictly mine, if anyone's.]