From: aki@cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us
Newsgroups: misc.consumers,misc.misc,comp.sys.mac.comm,comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: PRODIGY New and improved STILL SUCKS, HORRIBLE as before
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 13:17:04 PST
Reply-To: aki@cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us

In article <1992Dec17.075003.3502@news.acns.nwu.edu>, alasnik@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Adam Lasnik) writes:
> In <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.
> 
> I don't mean this to offend you personally, but that rumor is the biggest
> bunch of **** that's hit the rumor circuit in some time.
> 
> I think the people who first accused Prodigy of that are very embarrassed.
> Leading compu-wizards have since disproven the silly allegations.
> 
> The perception, in part, was caused by dos-idiots noticing "pieces of their
> text files" embedded in a cache file created by Prodigy.  The "pieces of info"
> were just deleted text segments that DOS took over when a new file was
> created.  Forgive me for my inelegant response.  I'm paying long distance
> costs to access this, so I'm not gonna try to go into more detail.
> 
> Knowledgeable net people, help me out.  Every reputable source I've read says
> the accusations are a crock... Any one else wanna jump in on this one?
> 

I would count myself as being quite knowledgeable on this matter.
No, there is definitely _no_proof_ against Prodigy on the charges
of invasion of privacy. However, the Prodigy software does have
the capability to download any piece of code and execute it. Say
IBM wanted to know how many Prodigy users have some specific
software packages. They could probably squeeze a program to check
for them into 400 bytes or less. Those 400 bytes transmit
in 4 seconds or less. You would never notice it. Returning the 
results of the check as a bitfield (say a 32bit integer) takes
a minuscule fraction of a second.

Having the capability does naturally not mean that Prodigy
would use it. I do see some dangers, tho. First off, Prodigy
monthly charge is quite low. In fact, an active Prodigy user
probably does not generate a profit for Prodigy. This is
balanced by the fact that Prodigy eats 10% for all purchases
that are made through the service. But it still doesn't
fundamentally balance the equation. In fact, I am really
very afraid that making unauthorized user surveys is one
of the primary aims of Prodigy.

Do you know how expensive user surveys are?  Companies
are ready to pay $1-$10 for each person taking part in
a marketing related poll.  Prodigy can fulfill these at
a fraction of the cost (for the service) and sell the
data at going market prices. This would probably give
Prodigy more money than the monthly service charges
and 10% purchase fees taken together.

I can not provide any additional proof beyond short
discussions that I've had with Prodigy officials. Usually
these end when I ask them about invasion of privacy.
NOBODY REFUTED the claims. Ever. This reaction from
the part of knowledgeable Prodigy officials is highly
suspicious.  I could make a prediction that sometime
in the future someone will provide unrefutable proof
that invasion of privacy has indeed taken place. The
Prodigy people may be waiting for the negative
publicity to wear off, and would probably get back
to their ways in, say 12-48 months. They can wait.

If you have confidential data on your computer, I
do suggest that you don't use Prodigy. Neither run
Prodigy while you have your network active. If you
get highly paranoid, store the Prodigy software on
a diskette with an OS or utilities that allow you
to lock logical drives (such as C: and D:). While
communicating with prodigy, disallow access to your
fixed disk drives.

However,  if you find Prodigy useful, the one thing
that you should not do, is canceling your subscription
to the service.  There is a definite need for a
service such as Prodigy. It provides low cost
access to many information services (above all EAASY
SABRE, the only part of Prodigy that I used frequently). 
What's more, the relatively easy user interface
introduces many novices to the world of telecommunications.

Aki.

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