Xref: utzoo comp.org.eff.talk:2331 alt.privacy:540 alt.censorship:2208 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!olivea!isc-br!tau-ceti!dogear!kharma!dave From: dave@kharma Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk,alt.privacy,alt.censorship Subject: Re: Prodigy charged with invading users' privacy Keywords: stage.dat, prodigy Message-ID: Date: 4 May 91 15:13:46 GMT References: <1991May3.071620.14140@ruacad.ac.runet.edu> Organization: Computer Concern of Springdale, WA 1-800-786-7109 Lines: 55 leng@ruacad.ac.runet.edu (Lud Eng) writes: > In article francis@zaphod.uchic > >>>This should provide rather conclusive proof one way or the other. > > > I did read the post... He just said to zero the unused areas, but leave > the hard drive (and all info) accessable. My point was that Prodigy may > go ahead and use the hard drive for scratch space if it's available, so > zeroing the floppy may not do much. I'm not saying it's particularly > likely (or even makes sense offhand to me) that they could accidently read > non-prodigy related files off the hard drive and get them mixed into their > temp file, but it can't be ruled out as a bug just because it's unlikely. :) Having just checked out a client's file area(s), I am relatively certain in my mind that Prodigy is, in fact, invading the users privacy. Here are some reasons why: I was able, through very *minor* hex tweaking, to create a spreadsheet file from data contained within STAGE.DAT in less than an hour, and I am not that skilled in such things. I could actually see the numbers! Also, no one has questioned the issue of proprietary software rights. My client has a registered user's copy of Brown Bag Software's very nice menuing program, Power Menu. I was able to find a substantial amount of the text and error messages from this software within STAGE.DAT near the end of the file. I wonder what Brown Bag would say if they knew this was happening? To what end is STAGE.DAT being used? I asked an unknown individual at Prodigy about this, and I was rudely and immediately hung up on. When I called back, asserting my right to protect my client from what I perceived as a potential security problem, I was again told to "mind my own business" and the individual hung up on me without comment. If there is not such an invasion taking place, why are the Sears representatives being such a butt? What I have instructed my entire client base to do, if they insist upon running Prodigy, is to create a boot diskette, carefully avoiding any CONFIG.SYS references to drivers or other programs on Drive C and use that diskette to boot their system, prior to running Prodigy, which also is run from a diskette. I do wish to note that, in the final analysis, STAGE.DAT under the methodology just described, shrank from a file size of nearly 600 K (!!) to less than 3 K in file size. A properly skeptical and logical mind might ask, why does this smaller file size occur, if they are not storing data off the hard disk... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - isc-br!tau-ceti!dogear!kharma!dave [dave@kharma] Dave Laird, SysOp: kharma The Computer Concern, Springdale, WA 258-7109 or 1-800-786-7109 kharma: 509-233-8474 (Local from Spokane Area) 24hrs 1200-14400 (HST)