home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- <text id=91TT1028>
- <title>
- May 13, 1991: Business Notes:Computers
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- May 13, 1991 Crack Kids
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- BUSINESS, Page 47
- Business Notes
- COMPUTERS
- Big Brother or Big Bother?
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Pity Prodigy. An information network linking computers across
- the nation, Prodigy prides itself on being user-friendly, but it
- is becoming known for user-enemies, who accuse it of unjust rate
- hikes and censorship. Now comes the gravest charge yet: that
- Prodigy peeks into customers' private files.
- </p>
- <p> To make its service easier to use, Prodigy creates a file
- in its customers' computers. Some clients complain that medical
- records, legal briefs and other personal items have appeared in
- that file. Is Prodigy invading their privacy? Absolutely not,
- insists the New York-based firm, explaining that when the new
- file grabs space for itself in a PC, it may accidentally reveal
- previously erased data. This is all the concerned users are
- seeing. Even some of Prodigy's accusers agree. Besides, if the
- firm really wanted to spy, this certainly is the hard way to do
- it.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-