home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- PRIVACY Forum Digest Friday, 19 May 1995 Volume 04 : Issue 11
-
- Moderated by Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com)
- Vortex Technology, Woodland Hills, CA, U.S.A.
-
- ===== PRIVACY FORUM =====
-
- The PRIVACY Forum digest is supported in part by the
- ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy,
- and the Data Services Division
- of MCI Communications Corporation.
-
-
- CONTENTS
- FCC Press Release regarding CNID
- (Lauren Weinstein; PRIVACY Forum Moderator)
- Privacy, cellular telephones, and 911 (Les Earnest)
- Enhanced 911 and Cellular Telephones (Henry Unger)
- Re: Privacy, cellular telephones, and 911 (Marc Horowitz)
- Re: Privacy, cellular telephones, and 911 (Jerry Leichter)
- Thermal Imagers Used To Search Homes (hingson@teleport.com)
- Digital Signature legislation-in-process (Jim Warren)
- Privacy Rights Clearinghouse Annual Report
- (Privacy Rights Clearinghouse)
- Family Protection Act of 1995 (Faye Hsini Ku)
- Telecom Post (CWHITCOM@bentley.edu)
- New book on cryptographic policy (Lance J. Hoffman)
- Microsoft plans corporate espionage (Chris Norloff) [from RISKS]
- RISKS in Microsoft's Windows95 (Identity Withheld) [from RISKS]
-
-
- *** Please include a RELEVANT "Subject:" line on all submissions! ***
- *** Submissions without them may be ignored! ***
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- The Internet PRIVACY Forum is a moderated digest for the discussion and
- analysis of issues relating to the general topic of privacy (both personal
- and collective) in the "information age" of the 1990's and beyond. The
- moderator will choose submissions for inclusion based on their relevance and
- content. Submissions will not be routinely acknowledged.
-
- All submissions should be addressed to "privacy@vortex.com" and must have
- RELEVANT "Subject:" lines; submissions without appropriate and relevant
- "Subject:" lines may be ignored. Excessive "signatures" on submissions are
- subject to editing. Subscriptions are by an automatic "listserv" system; for
- subscription information, please send a message consisting of the word
- "help" (quotes not included) in the BODY of a message to:
- "privacy-request@vortex.com". Mailing list problems should be reported to
- "list-maint@vortex.com".
-
- All messages included in this digest represent the views of their
- individual authors and all messages submitted must be appropriate to be
- distributable without limitations.
-
- The PRIVACY Forum archive, including all issues of the digest and all
- related materials, is available via anonymous FTP from site "ftp.vortex.com",
- in the "/privacy" directory. Use the FTP login "ftp" or "anonymous", and
- enter your e-mail address as the password. The typical "README" and "INDEX"
- files are available to guide you through the files available for FTP
- access. PRIVACY Forum materials may also be obtained automatically via
- e-mail through the listserv system. Please follow the instructions above
- for getting the listserv "help" information, which includes details
- regarding the "index" and "get" listserv commands, which are used to access
- the PRIVACY Forum archive. All PRIVACY Forum materials are available
- through the Internet Gopher system via a gopher server on site
- "gopher.vortex.com". Access to PRIVACY Forum materials is also available
- through the Internet World Wide Web (WWW) via the Vortex Technology WWW
- server at the URL: "http://www.vortex.com".
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- VOLUME 04, ISSUE 11
-
- Quote for the day:
-
- "... Run when he takes out his dental floss!
- 'Cause my ... son ... the vampire...
- 'Ain't collecting it for, the Red Cross..."
-
- -- Allan Sherman
- "My Son, the Vampire" (1952)
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 11 May 95 19:36 PDT
- From: lauren@vortex.com (Lauren Weinstein; PRIVACY Forum Moderator)
- Subject: FCC Press Release regarding CNID
-
- Greetings. As you may recall from the previous digest, a new FCC order (the
- full text of which still doesn't seem to have appeared on their gopher) has
- enhanced privacy protection for callers relating to calling number ID
- systems, primarily through permitting the use of per-line ID blocking
- systems. It's particularly important that the Commission clearly addressed
- the important issue of ID unblocking (the new *82 code) and the issue of
- call-return.
-
- Below is the full text of the press release announcing this order. It is
- worth noting however, that litigation regarding this matter may continue.
- Some states are petitioning for reconsideration on the basis that the FCC
- didn't go far enough in providing protections to subscribers with
- non-published numbers (among other matters). Similarly, some major telcos
- are petitioning with the claim that the FCC went too far in the direction of
- privacy by allowing per-line ID blocking at all (not unexpected, since
- per-line ID blocking is a major blow to the desirability of CNID systems for
- marketing and other purposes).
-
- --Lauren--
-
- -------------------------------
-
- Report No. DC 95-71 ACTION IN DOCKET CASE May 4, 1995
-
- FCC FINALIZES RULES FOR CALLER ID; ALLOWS PER LINE BLOCKING WHERE
- STATES PERMIT; PBX CALLER ID RULES PROPOSED
- (CC DOCKET 91-281)
-
- The Commission today voted to approve national Caller ID rules that
- will protect the privacy of the called and the calling party by
- mandating that carriers make available a free, simple and consistent,
- per call blocking and unblocking mechanism. Under the rules adopted
- today, callers dialing *67 before dialing a particular call will, for
- interstate calls, block calling party information for any interstate
- calls and those callers using a blocked line can unblock the line and
- release that information by dialing *82. The Order permits carriers
- to provide privacy on all calls dialed from a particular line, where
- state policies provide, and the customer selects, that option.
-
- Today's action came as the Commission reconsidered its original Caller
- ID nationwide Caller ID system is in the public interest. It found
- that passage of the calling party's number, or CPN, could benefit
- consumers by encouraging the introduction of new technologies and
- services to the public, enabling service providers and consumers to
- conduct transactions more efficiently.
-
- The rules adopted today will take effect December 1, 1995. Public pay
- phones and partylines will be required to be in compliance by January 1,
- 1997. The Commission also issued a rulemaking proposal concerning PBX
- and private payphone obligations under the Caller ID rules.
-
- In March 1994, the Commission adopted a Report and Order that concluded
- that a nationwide Caller ID system was in the public interest and stated
- that the potential benefits of a Caller ID system -- efficiency and
- productivity gains, infrastructure development and network utilization,
- and new service and employment opportunities -- would only be possible if
- CPN is passed among carrier networks. It noted two areas of concern
- however -- compensation issues related to passage of CPN for interstate
- calls and varying state requirements intended to protect the privacy
- rights of calling and called parties on interstate calls.
-
- In today's action the Commission affirmed its finding that common
- carriers, including Commercial Mobile Radio Service providers, with
- Signaling System 7 (SS7)call set up capability, must transport CPN
- without charge to interstate connecting carriers. The Commission
- clarified that carriers without SS7 call set upcapability do not have
- to upgrade their networks just to transport CPN to connecting
- carriers. The Commission noted that local exchange carriers are
- required to resell interstate access for Caller ID to other carriers
- wishing to compete for end-user business in this market.
-
- The Commission modified its previous decision that only per-call
- blocking would be allowed. Today's action permits per-line blocking
- for interstate calls instates where it is permitted for intrastate
- calls, provided the customer elects per line blocking. The Commission's
- original rules required a caller to dial *67 before each call in order
- to block the called party from knowing the caller's number. The
- Commission has now modified its rules to permit carriers to provide
- privacy on all calls dialed from a particular line, where state
- policies provide, and the customer selects, that option, provided
- carriers permit callers to unblock calls from that line by dialing
- *82. Where state policies do not require or permit at the customer's
- election per line blocking, carriers are bound by the federal privacy
- protection model to provide privacy only where *67 is dialed.
-
- The Commission noted that it continues to exempt calls to emergency lines
- from its rules; that is, a carrier's obligation to honor caller privacy
- requests to emergency numbers will be governed by state policies.
-
- As an additional privacy measure, the Commission requires that when a
- caller requests that the calling party number be concealed, a carrier may
- not reveal the name of the subscriber to that line and callers requesting
- that their number not be revealed should be able to block an automatic
- call return feature. The Commission continues to require that carriers
- with call set up capability that pass CPN or transmit Automatic Number
- Identification (ANI) educate customers regarding the passage and usage of
- this information.
-
- Finally, the Commission issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing
- that Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems and private payphones capable
- of delivering CPN to the public switched telephone network also be capable
- of delivering a privacy indicator when users dial *67 and be capable of
- unblocking the line by dialing *82.
-
- Action by the Commission May 4, 1995, by MO&O on Reconsideration, Second
- R&O and Third NPRM (FCC 95 - 187). Chairman Hundt, Commissioners Quello,
- Barrett, Ness and Chong.
-
- -FCC-
-
- News Media contact: Susan Lewis Sallet at (202) 418-1500.
- Common Carrier Bureau contacts: Marian Gordon at (202) 634-4215.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 12:18:41 -0700
- From: Les Earnest <les@SAIL.Stanford.EDU>
- Subject: Privacy, cellular telephones, and 911
-
- Regarding Jerry Leichter's report on the proposal to locate cellular
- phones that make 911 calls, I believe that I pointed out in this forum
- several years ago that cellular phone systems already track individual
- phones by comparing signal strengths at various antennas. The
- available positional accuracy depends on the antenna configuations (I
- understand that up to six directional antennas are typically used at
- each site) and the distance from the nearest site.
-
- More important, there is no legal requirement for a court order or
- other official review to track individual phones. As reported
- earlier, these phones can be tracked as long as they are "on" whether
- or not there is a call in progress.
-
- -Les Earnest
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 6 May 95 10:46:03 -0700
- From: Henry Unger <hunger@hitech.com>
- Subject: Enhanced 911 and Cellular Telephones
-
- Jerry Leichter's (or is it Phil Agre's?) article of 4/22
- discussed the fact that Enhanced 911 systems do not provide any
- useful information about the location of a cellular phone user
- calling 911, and the privacy concerns relating to providing
- location information.
-
- An alternative to the 150 meter accuracy goal could be the following:
-
- The telephone companies could easily relay the location of the
- current cell site with which the cellular phone is communicating
- to the PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) with no change in the
- cellular telephones in use today and no hardware changes to the
- cell sites, thereby localizing the cell phone caller at least to
- the sphere of that cell site. For some reason, the telephone
- companies are dragging their heels on providing such service.
-
- As it is the cell site that would be providing the location
- information, and not the cellular telephone itself, and such
- location information communicated via land line or microwave, and
- only in the case of a 911 call, I think that privacy would not
- be an issue in this scheme.
-
- Henry Unger
- Hitech Systems, Inc.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 06 May 1995 23:00:22 EDT
- From: Marc Horowitz <marc@MIT.EDU>
- Subject: Re: Privacy, cellular telephones, and 911
-
- >> Since 911 is supposed to be useful to people in serious trouble, who
- >> may not be able to take an explicit action to acknowledge a system
- >> request, chances are overwhelming that any such system would not
- >> require explicit action by the cellphone owner. I would expect most
- >> phones wouldn't even provide an indication that they'd been
- >> interrogated.
-
- My cellphone has an emergency button on it, which is programmed to
- call 911. It works in all modes, with the phone locked, etc. It
- would seem to be simple to have the phone only respond to location
- queries if the call was made using this feature.
-
- Of course, you could also have the phone recognize the number "911",
- and have that turn on the phone's ability for reporting location.
-
- This requires me to trust the cellphone vendor not to allow subversion
- of this feature, but that seems better than trusting the FCC and the
- telco's.
-
- Marc
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 7 May 95 09:56:45 EDT
- From: Jerry Leichter <leichter@lrw.com>
- Subject: Re: Privacy, cellular telephones, and 911
-
- My cellphone has an emergency button on it, which is programmed to
- call 911. It works in all modes, with the phone locked, etc. It
- would seem to be simple to have the phone only respond to location
- queries if the call was made using this feature.
-
- Of course, you could also have the phone recognize the number "911",
- and have that turn on the phone's ability for reporting location.
-
- This requires me to trust the cellphone vendor not to allow subversion
- of this feature, but that seems better than trusting the FCC and the
- telco's.
-
- Great theory, but it'll never happen, since it requires changing (in practice,
- replacing) every cellphone out there - not just at this moment, but up through
- the moment when a new system is agreed upon, designed, and implemented.
- None of the existing standards, analogue or digital, traditional cell or newer
- PCS microcell, have the phone do anything special to provide physical location
- information. That's tens of millions of cellphone units of various kinds,
- with more rolling off the assembly lines every day.
-
- To have any chance of being accepted, a location system would have to use
- information that can be gleaned from existing cellphones. Certainly, changes
- will need to be made at the cell sites, but funding for that kind of thing has
- a long history (since that, of course, is how 911 and E911 were implemented).
- There are technical arguments about whether the FCC's proposed 150 meter
- resolution can be achieved without changes to cellphones - it's probably
- pretty easy in a microcell system - and both industry and the FCC agree that
- if it can't be achieved, it'll be the FCC that backs off. (Even if the FCC
- *didn't* agree, there's no way Congress would let the FCC impose that kind of
- cost on "consumers" - or industry, which in the end would come down to the
- same thing.)
-
- Once the location system makes use of information inherent in the operation
- of the cellular net, it makes no difference what you do at your phone, short
- of leaving it turned off. I'd say that, one way or another, that's where we
- are going. The old wireline technology inherently gave away your physical
- location, at least when you spoke on the phone; it'll turn out to be only a
- short passing phase of technological development that *doesn't* give this
- information away, though unfortunately it'll do it even when you aren't
- talking.
- -- Jerry
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 7 May 1995 10:37:51 -0700
- From: hingson@teleport.com
- Subject: Thermal Imagers Used To Search Homes
-
- I am a criminal defense lawyer. I am litigating the issue of whether the
- use of a thermal imaging device on a home to detect heat emissions
- constitutes a "search" under the Fourth Amendment. If there are any
- articles or knowledeable individuals out there who can help me, I would
- be most appreciative. Thanks.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 8 May 1995 18:07:07 +0800
- From: jwarren@well.sf.ca.us (Jim Warren)
- Subject: Digital Signature legislation-in-process
-
- Please circulate this freely. Although this concerns California
- legislation, for better or worse, California statutes often prompt similar
- action in other states and even at the federal level.
-
- California state Assembly Bill 1577 (Bowen) would mandate and/or permit
- certain things regarding legal status and use of digital signatures - at
- least as used in doing business with the state. Its first 8-page version
- was originally copied from similar Utah legislation; also similar to bills
- in Washington State and Oregon.
-
- A later 1-page version of AB 1577 radically changed things - and
- bill-author Debra Bowen has committed to giving full and careful
- consideration to all *timely* input and suggestions regarding this issue
- before she moves the bill to any final legislative vote.
-
- Bowen's aide handling the bill is Bob Alexander, alexanrb@assembly.ca.gov .
-
- I suggest that those interested emphasize the word, *TIMELY*.
-
- With Bowen's knowledge and with aide Alexander as one of its recipients, an
- open listserv for public discussion of this issue has been set up by the
- nonprofit CommerceNet, and extensive comments have already begun
- circulating.
-
- If you are interested in these issues - and legislation impacting this
- evolving technology - you may wish to [1] subscribe to ca-digsig (below)
- and [2] check the bill-text, available from sen.ca.gov or from the new
- Assembly web-page that may or may not be up-n-running yet
- (http://www.assembly.ca.gov/).
-
- The archived mailing list has been established on the CommerceNet WWW server.
- You may reach the archives at:
- http://www.commerce.net/archives/ca-digsig/
-
- To subscribe or unsubscribe, simply mail to:
- ca-digsig-request@commerce.net
-
- To send a message to the mailing list, simply mail to:
- ca-digsig@commerce.net
-
- Since most calgovinfo folks aren't gonna be interested in the arcane
- techno-haggles re digital signatures, personally, I would suggest that most
- discussion of this might oughta be conducted in that listserv, rather than
- here in calgovinfo - at least until/unless grassroots political
- action/advocacy/rabble-rousing is needed/desired.
-
- --jim
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 13:43:35 -0700 (PDT)
- From: Privacy Rights Clearinghouse <prc@teetot.acusd.edu>
- Subject: Privacy Rights Clearinghouse Annual Report
-
- The Second Annual Report of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse is now
- available. The 68-page report covers the time frame from October
- 1993 through September 1994, our second full year of hotline
- operation. We discuss project usage statistics and accomplishments
- as well as what we consider to be the most significant privacy
- issues affecting California consumers.
-
- This year we have reported privacy issues a little differently,
- selecting some of the more troubling privacy abuses from hotline
- calls and discussing them in a separate section of the report. The
- Second Annual Report highlights nearly 50 such case studies. We
- have made particular note of what we call invisible information
- gathering; we also focus on the growing crime of identity theft. In
- addition, we revisit some of the topics discussed last year, such
- as "junk" mail, unwanted telemarketing sales calls, medical records
- privacy and workplace monitoring.
-
- A 15-page Executive Summary of the Annual Report can be found on
- the PRC's gopher site. The Executive Summary includes all of the
- case studies featured in the full report. Gopher to
- gopher.acusd.edu. Go into the menu item "USD Campuswide Information
- Services" to find the PRC's materials. The report can be found under
- "Issue Papers" in the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse directory.
-
- For a complete paper copy of the 68-page report, call the PRC at
- 800-773-7748 (Calif. only) or 619-298-3396.
-
- The PRC is a nonprofit consumer education program administered by
- the University of San Diego Center for Public Interest Law. It is
- funded in part by the Telecommunications Education Trust, a program
- of the California Public Utilities Commission.
-
- ====================================================================
- Barry D. Fraser fraser@acusd.edu
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 09:11:04 -0700 (PDT)
- From: Faye Hsini Ku <fayeku@uclink3.berkeley.edu>
- Subject: Family Protection Act of 1995
-
- It seems to me that the Family Protection Act of 1995 (H.R. 1271) would
- limit any type of counseling or guidance that is offered outside of the
- family setting to teens that are becoming sexually active. That would be
- a grave mistake, because we would be restricting our ability to take
- preventative measures and thus have to rely on correctional ones. Why
- should we wait until a problem has happened to deal with it?
-
- - Faye -
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 19:54:43 -0700
- From: CWHITCOM@bentley.edu
- Subject: Telecom Post
-
- **********Announcing the Telecom Post*********
-
- This spring and early summer will witness the design and passage
- of legislation that will shape our communication infrastructure
- for many years to come. In an effort to keep the Internet
- community abreast of legislative events, Free Speech Media, LLC
- intends to publish a weekly bulletin, The Telecom Post, with
- brief updates on the DC action. This alert will cover the issues
- and concerns of the public interest community and point to
- actions that can be taken on behalf of these issues. Material
- will be collected from Internet postings, newsletters, and
- interviews. It will consist of summarizations, paraphrased
- articles, and excerpts. There will be at least 8 weekly editions
- of the Post. It will continue for the duration of the
- legislative activity. A background piece will sent following this message.
-
- A directory of pointers to more in-depth information will be kept
- in the online archives and Home page of Computer Professionals
- for Social Responsibility. The directory is currently under
- construction and will be announced separately.
-
- Attention list owner:
- We can send the Telecom Post either to the entire list or offer it to
- individuals on a listserv basis. If you would prefer that it not be
- sent to the list as a whole, please contact Coralee Whitcomb at
- cwhitcom@bentley.edu.
-
- To subscribe to the Telecom Post as an individual please send the message
- SUBSCRIBE TELECOM-POST your name
- to
- LISTSERV@CPSR.ORG
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 18 May 1995 04:48:10 -0400 (EDT)
- From: "Lance J. Hoffman" <hoffman@seas.gwu.edu>
- Subject: New book on cryptographic policy
-
- BUILDING IN BIG BROTHER: The Cryptographic Policy Debate
-
- a collection of readings with commentary by Prof. Lance J. Hoffman
- of The George Washington University
-
- has now been published by Springer Verlag.
-
- >From a publisher's blurb:
-
- "...This book presents the best readings on cryptographic
- policy and current cryptography trends. ... Detailed technological
- descriptions of promising new software schemes are included as well
- as analysis of the constitutional issues by legal scholars. Important
- government cost analyses appear here for the first time in any book.
- Other highlights include the text of the new US digital telephony law
- and the pending encryption regulation bill and a list of hundreds of
- cryptographic products available around the world. There is even a
- paper on how to commit the perfect crime electronically, using
- public key encryption.
-
- Much more detailed information and a table of contents is available
- by pointing your Web browser to
-
- http://www.seas.gwu.edu/seas/instctsp/docs/book
- *******************
-
- There you will also find endorsements by
- Marc Rotenberg, Electronic Privacy Information Center
- Stewart Baker, Steptoe & Johnson (former NSA general counsel)
- Phil Zimmermann, author of PGP
- Peter Neumann, moderator of RISKS Forum
- Michael Froomkin, law professor
-
- 560 pages, 19 illustrations, softcover $29.95
- ISBN 0-387-94441-9
-
- Call 1-800-SPRINGER to order, email orders to orders@springer-ny.com
- --
- Professor Lance J. Hoffman
- Dept of Elec Eng and Comp Sci, The Geo Washington U, 801 22nd St NW
- Wash DC 20052 (202) 994-4955 Fax: (202) 994-0227 hoffman@seas.gwu.edu
- See also: http://www.seas.gwu.edu/seas/instctsp/ictsp.html
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 17 May 95 13:44:40 EDT
- From: cnorloff@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil
- Subject: Microsoft plans corporate espionage
-
- [ Extracted from RISKS Forum Digest -- Volume 17 : Issue 13
- -- PRIVACY Forum Moderator ]
-
- Microsoft officials confirm that beta versions of Windows 95 include a
- small viral routine called Registration Wizard. It interrogates every
- system on a network gathering intelligence on what software is being run
- on which machine. It then creates a complete listing of both Microsoft's
- and competitors' products by machine, which it reports to Microsoft when
- customers sign up for Microsoft's Network Services, due for launch later
- this year.
-
- "In Short" column, page 88, _Information Week_ magazine, May 22, 1995
-
- The implications of this action, and the attitude of Microsoft to plan
- such action, beggars the imagination.
-
- Chris Norloff cnorloff@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil
-
- [Also reported by jyoull@cs.bgsu.edu (Jim)" and
- herzog@uask4it.eng.sun.com (Brian Herzog
- - Sun Microsystems, Inc.). PGN (RISKS Forum Moderator)]
-
- [ A later response to this message in RISKS (from a person at
- Microsoft) indicated that the program in question isn't a virus
- and that the user is given the choice of whether or not they want
- to upload their configuration information during registration (it's
- apparently an all-or-nothing choice however--you can't easily
- provide *some* of the config info if you provide any at all).
-
- This still begs the question of why Microsoft feels it needs
- all that info. Is any rationale provided to the user to
- help them decide whether or not they should agree to provide
- all that data to Microsoft? Does Microsoft make any statement
- about what they plan to do with that data? One can't help
- but wonder if perhaps knowledge of which applications are
- loaded on a system might not be used to target users
- for promotions of competing Microsoft products?
-
- Without a clear explanation of what is going to be done
- with that data, it would appear prudent to think carefully
- about agreeing to such uploads regardless of the systems involved.
-
- -- PRIVACY Forum Moderator ]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 17 May 95 12:22 xxT
- From: [identity withheld at submitter's request]
- Subject: RISKS in Microsoft's Windows95
-
- [ Extracted from RISKS Forum Digest -- Volume 17 : Issue 13
- -- PRIVACY Forum Moderator ]
-
- Sometime in the latter part of the summer, Microsoft is planning to release
- their Windows95 follow-on for Windows 3.1 to the masses. Whether the effort
- required to keep things working after installing the release vs. the
- perceived benefits of Win95 makes the installation a sensible decision is
- quite an open question. Reports from beta testers are indicating that even
- for Windows experts, getting their system running again after the upgrade
- can be a bad experience, given the wide variety of complex hardware,
- drivers, and other components that have been integrated into Windows 3.1
- environments over the years.
-
- For Windows users who are less than experts, the problems risk being even
- more serious, with various applications (or even entire systems) effectively
- useless without various "tweaks", fixes, new drivers, new software, etc. In
- other words, the backwards compatibility of Win95 in the real world of
- people's existing Windows 3.1 installations should be an issue of grave
- concern, especially among users concerned about prolonged downtime.
-
- We may be reaching a stage where the sheer complexity of PC application
- software and hardware is making the entire concept of major operating system
- upgrades being installed successfully by average users extremely
- problematical. It seems very likely that large numbers of Windows 3.1 users
- will (or at least should) be extremely cautious about being an early adopter
- of Win95.
-
- Bya the way, here's a new feature announced for Win95 that carries new RISKS
- of its own. Called "AutoPlay" it is apparently a feature of the Win95
- CD-ROM driver that allows CD-ROM authors to create a special init file on
- the disc that will automatically start running programs from the disc as
- soon as a disc is inserted into the CD-ROM drive. From the descriptions
- available so far, there doesn't seem to be a system-wide way to disable such
- a feature, you have to remember to hold down the shift key on your keyboard
- while inserting the disc to disable it for that particular insertion
- (apparently folks with remote keyboards might just be out of luck!)
-
- What sorts of harm could come from autoloading of CD-ROMs? Outside of the
- obvious malicious applications (don't laugh, CD-ROMs are getting so cheap to
- produce that all manner of nasties could be planted on purpose or by
- accident), there's the obvious problem that most PC CD-ROM applications need
- considerable software and disk support, often involving significant use of
- disk space, changes to system-wide configuration and other driver data, etc.
- It is not unusual for these changes to conflict in some manner with other
- programs and installations, needing manual intervention. At least when you
- do the installation manually you can stop, look for README files, etc.
- before starting the guts of the install, but if the CD-ROM fires off on its
- own there's no telling what might happen.
-
- True, a reasonable CD-ROM author would query the user about this process
- rather than running off and starting the install without user input, but
- it's probable that many authors who want things to look "slick" won't bother
- with this. In fact, Microsoft seems to be encouraging the "slick" attitude
- in their description of this feature.
-
- Another point. You're about to start seeing music CDs that carry CD-ROM
- programs and data on the initial part of the disc before music track 1. If
- such discs tried to make use of the Win95 AutoPlay feature, an unsuspecting
- user who stuck the music disc into his or her CD-ROM player planning to hear
- only music (lots of PC users play music CDs on their CD-ROM drives these
- days) could end up getting a lot more than bargained for.
-
- [ A later response to this message in RISKS from a long-time
- Microsoft beta tester claims that some of the installation
- problems with Win95 have been resolved as the betas have continued.
- However, others have noted that the computer trade press still
- abounds with discussion of installation problems even with the
- latest betas. Also, it would seem likely that the ability of
- experienced beta testers to deal with installation problems
- would typically far exceed the ability of average users in that
- regard--meaning what might be a minor problem to a beta tester
- could possibly be a total disaster to a "normal" user.
-
- The same response message also suggested that there might be some
- way to globally disable (or at least alter the behavior of) the
- CD-ROM AutoPlay feature discussed above. But this information had
- to be dug out of the internal configuration files, the effect was
- not definite, and clearly the intention is that AutoPlay would be
- on by default and (at least as it stands now) not something
- Microsoft expects most users to ever try turning off.
-
- -- PRIVACY Forum Moderator ]
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of PRIVACY Forum Digest 04.11
- ************************
-