Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!pacbell.com!pacbell!pbhyf!jcwasik
From: jcwasik@PacBell.COM (Joe Wasik)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Prodigy quirk may give Prodigy Corp a view of your pc -WSJ
Message-ID: <8894@pbhyf.PacBell.COM>
Date: 3 May 91 19:38:32 GMT
References: <3145@s5.Morgan.COM> <1991May2.133936.3595@cs.dal.ca> <91122.120725DSB100@psuvm.psu.edu>
Reply-To: jcwasik@PacBell.COM (Joe Wasik)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
Lines: 22

In article <91122.120725DSB100@psuvm.psu.edu> DSB100@psuvm.psu.edu (David Barr) writes:
>[...] First, the software they download is used only by the
>Prodigy software itself.  It is loaded as segments in the cache file.
>I doubt they could manage to put a very effective virus on your computer
>with this limiting factor.  I don't think they can even download trojans,
>since they would have to be their own executable files.

Sorry, but if malice was Prodigy's intention, they could do ANYTHING they want.
Don't forget, that's their program you have running on your PC.  That program
has total control of your system.  It could modify itself -- and it could
modify anything else.

While I don't think Prodigy intentionally grabs data, I agree with a point
made earlier that if they have your data, it's not only Prodigy you must
trust, but also every Prodigy employee that has access to that data.  So,
perhaps it's a good idea that they stopped taking it.

-- 
Joe Wasik, Pac*Bell, 2600 Camino Ramon, Rm 4E750V, San Ramon, CA (415)823-2422
email: jcwasik@clib.PacBell.COM or [...]!pacbell!clib!jcwasik
Sloganeering (slo-gan-err-ing) v. The act of believing that people can be
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