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From: tom.jennings@f111.n125.z1.FIDONET.ORG (tom jennings)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Prodigy charged with invading users' privacy
Message-ID: <14709.28435183@fidogate.FIDONET.ORG>
Date: 27 May 91 20:23:36 GMT
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Umm ... Prodigy stealing my spreadsheets would be certainly devious, 
but totally useless. Random data is just that -- random.

A more useful thing would be a quick scan & profile of filenames on 
the hard disk -- 123.COM, WS.EXE, LOTUS.EXE, WORD.EXE. You could with 
some certainty determine what products a given system has simply by 
getting a list of the filenames (ie. WORD.EXE plus the zillion system 
and font files, that sort of thing. WORD.EXE by itself could mean 
anything.)
 
MSDOS system hackers would be the ones to talk to. I used to have a 
tool (a bit dangerous) that listed on the screen each and every system 
call -- file open "FOO", read file 1, close file ... directory open 
"\BIN", that sort of thing ... 
 
I am *NOT* implying that Prodigy does this, simply that this is far 
more "interesting" than "stealing" my checkbook spreadsheets, which is 
silly.


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