Re: Just the facts, ma'am.
Date: Wed, 26 May 93 09:14:50 EDT From: jthomas@kolanut.mitre.org (Joe Thomas) Subject: Re: Just the facts, ma'am.
Thank you for your insights. I will ask UUNet, but I'm beginning to wonder if other local comm providers practice the same deceptions. Does anyone have any experiences with digex.com that they would like to share?
Nothing but good ones. Doug Humphrey <doug@access.digex.net> even posted to the list a few times as I recall. I'm still not sure I see a problem with someone providing a newsfeed to the NSA, FBI, or anyone else, though.
From day one, there was a policy of not disclosing customer information to ANYONE without a warrant. To date, thankfully, I don't think that it's been
As one of the former tech-weenies at Express Access, and now just a friend with no formal association to the business, I feel compelled to give you my thoughts on that particular service provider. Rarely will you find a system administration staff more concerned with your privacy that the guys at Digital Express Group. As I recall, the set of username->real name mappings isn't even on machine readable media on the system. When I was working with them, we had a big book, and people only accessed the book when absolutely necessary, for instance to inform a user of a file system problem or the like. In fact, on several instances, I would ask other staff people who a particular username belonged to when I had a need to contact them - more often than not, they/we couldn't remember, and I had to look it up anyway. This was by design. put to the test, though I have no doubts as to the grief they'll give those trying to get the information. The original machine room was one of the best jobs of low-cost RFI/EMI shielding construction I've ever seen. (BTW, the foam insulation with foil on both sides is a boon to mankind.) It wasn't really intended to keep people from looking at the emissions as to keep the emissions from wiping out all the shortwave receivers in use, but hey, every little bit helps. I'm still a user there, and I have a hell of a lot of respect for that crew. I would also implicitly trust them as a site for anonymous remailing, key certification, or the like. I hope that becomes a part of their business focus in the future, because we need service providers who won't be intimidated. --Strat
On the cypherpunks mailing list, Strat wrote...
Rarely will you find a system administration staff more concerned with your privacy that the guys at Digital Express Group. As I recall, the set of username->real name mappings isn't even on machine readable media on the system.
Really? That's odd, especially for a unix box, which access.digex.com seems to be. And, as a matter of fact, it does seem to show "Robert Stratton" for the username of "strat". So, it seems they do maintain username to "real name" mappings (even if they allow the user to change the "real name" listed.
When I was working with them, we had a big book, and people only accessed the book when absolutely necessary, for instance to inform a user of a file system problem or the like. ... This was by design.
As a side note, this sounds like a bad design.. keeping things on paper for a computer system. Perhaps, a disconnected computer system.. but, when you start talking a few thousand users, the paper begins to really become troublesome for maintaining information on accounts. ;-) FYI... -jeff Jeff Kellem Internet: composer@Beyond.Dreams.ORG
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