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From: dave@kharma
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk,alt.privacy,alt.censorship
Subject: Re: Prodigy charged with invading users' privacy
Message-ID: <7msB32w164w@kharma.UUCP>
Date: 22 May 91 01:57:53 GMT
References: <1991May1.015111.6232@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu>
Organization: Computer Concern of Springdale, WA 1-800-768-7109
Lines: 29

jerry@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Jerry J. Anderson) writes:

> jrbd@craycos.com (James Davies) writes:
> 
> 
> If you're serious about it, start with a wipedisk.  Then install a
> few files without erasing any.  That way, the only non-wiped areas
> on the disk will be currently used for files.  If STAGE.DAT and
> CACHE.DAT don't come up empty, you'll know something fishy is going
> on.
>
I did that with a client's system. I went one step further, in the interest of
scientific <*> correctness. I used a bulk formatter, and electro=magnetic
gadget that completely jumbles anything already on the disk. <It also
eliminates *any* possibility of diskette born virusi, BTW>. Then I did a
standard format and install the Prodigy apps on the clean diskette. I
furthermore verified the empty sectors of the diskette before I started to
make absolutely certain that they were empty. After *ONE* log-in at Prodigy,
the STAGE.DAT had pieces of a spreadsheet in Drive C:, all the options from
Prodigy which my client had chosen that night, and an entire <mostly> copy of
the tree on Drive C:... I dunno about you, but I won't use Prodigy again. It's
a marketing tool, to be sure, but in the wrong hands it could be Big Brother.
Neither you nor I are standing at Rears and Soebucks to make certain that
doesn't happen.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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)