Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Sat, 4 May 91 15:37:24 -0400 From: "Seng-Poh Lee, Speedy" Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Prodigy or Fraudigy ??? Message-ID: Organization: FSF Guest Machines Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 329, Message 6 of 9 Lines: 36 For the last few days, the Prodigy highlights screen has a message proclaiming that the users information is safe and that Prodigy does not upload data from the users computer. This is from the President of Prodigy, so they are taking this seriously. They also have a further description of how users info got into STAGE.DAT, and it follows the deleted sectors theory. I think after Prodigy messed up the e-mail issue, they are responding faster to this issue. However, although they emphatically claim that they do not get hold of any data NOT RELATED to the running of the Prodigy, this still leaves some avenues open. For example, they could claim that they need your path information to run Prodigy. This path information, however also happens to give them an idea of what type of programs you run on your machine. This would fall right in line with their marketing research. In any event, if Prodigy wanted to get info from your system, they don't have to store it in STAGE.DAT. The Prodigy software is written in such a way that new modules can be downloaded to your PC and then executed. This COULD include a program to scan your disk, and upload stuff without a trace of residual data. While I don't think the current STAGE.DAT issue is related to any uploading, I do think that Prodigy has the means to do a lot more if they wanted to. For example, lets say they investigate a complaint of abusive mail from a user (They reserve the right to read private mail under these circumstances). They could also download a module to that users PC to scan other files for abusive text, as part of building a case against that user. Is that justified? I have a funny feeling that this is not the end of it. Big brother is here and he runs your BBS! Seng-Poh Lee splee@gnu.ai.mit.edu