From: lginzb@ccat.sas.upenn.edu (Lionel Ginzburg)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers,misc.misc,comp.sys.mac.comm,comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: PRODIGY New and improved STILL SUCKS, HORRIBLE as before
Keywords: prodigy, stage.dat, msdos
Date: 18 Dec 92 16:56:28 GMT
Followup-To: misc.consumers

In article <zkessin.724650697@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu> zkessin@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Zach, the Lego Maniac) writes:
>jmalloy@itsmail1.hamilton.edu (Joseph T. Malloy) writes:
>
>>In article <zkessin.724555976@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu> zkessin@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Zach, the Lego Maniac) writes:
>>>
>>>DON'T use Prodigy, well not unless you dont care that other people may
>>>be snooping on *YOUR* files. I just read on alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
>>>something about Prodigy uploading stuff from peoples HD's. I think the
>>>EFF has more info.
>>>
>>>just a warning.
>>>
>>>Zach
>>>zkessin@cs.brandeis.edu
>
>>I thought this bit about Prodigy (which is awful as an on-line service,
>>if you ask me) "snooping around one's disk" was sort of an urban myth.
>>If I recall correctly, there is a file, STAGE.DAT, that Prodigy uses as
>>a temporary cache-like storage area, and it's this file that gets
>>written to (and read?), hence the time stamp changes often.  I don't
>>recall anyone demonstrating that the evil Prodigy empire was out there
>>looking for major industrial secrets on your hd :)  
>
>From what I know the Prodigy contract that you agree to when Loging on
>does give them this right. However I dont know if they do do this. I
>would not trust them myself, But I am paranoid in some ways. Also for
>consumer survays this would be a VERY effective way of runing survays
>to sell data on custemers. 
>I advise caution.
>I dont use prodigy and for this reason alone would not, (well the
>censoring of online forums and e-mail annoys me too)
>
>--Zach
>  Zachary Kessin  zkessin@cs.brandeis.edu
> real.world: I don't think the news server gets that group!    

In 2600 magazine, Autumn 1991 issue, a letter was printed in which a
computer consultant from Brooklyn, NY claimed to have proven that
Prodigy was using STAGE.DAT to obtain names for its mailing list.  (I
won't reproduce the letter, as the issue may be copyrighted.) He gave
two examples (I'll paraphrase):

A. A user's STAGE.DAT file was found to consist of names, addresses, and
telephone numbers that came both out of the dialing directories of other
modem programs, and from letters written under WordStar in another
subdirectory.

[A note from me, not in the letter-- because of the way that MSDOS
allocates files, it is possible that these numbers were sector filler
left from deleted files.  I'd be interested to know if someone has
noticed a similar phenomenon in data files from other versions  (Mac,
Amiga, if they exist) versions of the Prodigy software.]

B. The LAN of this consultant's company uses internal names to refer to
specific machines on the network.  These names are not used outside the
company. Soon after the consultant installed and began using Prodigy on
a machine on the LAN, snail-junk-mail letters started appearing from Prodigy,
addressed to these machine-names, which would not have been known to
Prodigy unless it was sneaking around the LAN.

[This one, IMHO, seems fairly damning.  The guy writing the letter seems
to know MSDOS fairly well-- he explains the deleted file stuff I mentioned
in my last set of brackets.  He's not just a paranoid novice user. 
Though, I should note, like many letters to 2600, his letter is signed
with a pseudonym. Not knowing this person, and not having seen the junk
mail he alludes to, I can't confirm the authenticity of his remarks. 
But I think this is where the rumor started.]

-------------
I'd like to note that I've never used Prodigy, not caring much for
commercial-type systems; do not work for any competitor of Prodigy, am
posting this message soley to stimulate discussion and/or explanation of
this phenomenon, and am not expressing opinion that has anything to do
with the University of Pa.  Just disseminating information.


-- 
Lionel Artom-Ginzburg
EMail to: Lionel@BWH.Harvard.edu
or, just autoreply.
Newsgroups: misc.consumers