To be honest I am pretty ignorant when it comes to canaries. Is there a formal way to write one? Or does something like "As of xx/xx/xx there have been no requests for user information by any group of law enforcement." posted monthly work?
Reddit's canary used to state
"As of January 29, 2015, reddit has never received a National Security Letter, an order under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or any other classified request for user information. If we ever receive such a request, we would seek to let the public know it existed. reddit supports reform of government surveillance programs and joined 86 other groups by signing an open letter to Congress in 2013."
But that doesn't make sense.
"If we ever receive such a request, we would seek to let the public know it existed."
Isn't the whole point of a canary that you cannot directly let users know?
The principle concept is that a court can issue a gag order to squash a site's ability to disclose any such disclosure of users' information, but they cannot legally force-compel speech to indicate the opposite of that. By having a warrant canary, a sitemaster can simply cease updating on a previously-established interval to indicate to the userbase without violating any law that something has changed to which they are not at liberty to disclose.
[ - ] Drain0 [op] 1 point 4.3 yearsMar 5, 2021 01:49:24 ago (+1/-0)
I think, or imagine, that the point of the canary is when it dies because of a breech it can no longer be posted therefore also informing the user base that the infraction happened without directly informing them.
[ + ] removed
[ - ] removed 0 points 4.3 yearsMar 6, 2021 15:50:35 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] system
[ - ] system 3 points 4.3 yearsMar 5, 2021 00:23:29 ago (+3/-0)
To be honest I am pretty ignorant when it comes to canaries. Is there a formal way to write one? Or does something like "As of xx/xx/xx there have been no requests for user information by any group of law enforcement." posted monthly work?
Reddit's canary used to state
"As of January 29, 2015, reddit has never received a National Security Letter, an order under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or any other classified request for user information. If we ever receive such a request, we would seek to let the public know it existed.
reddit supports reform of government surveillance programs and joined 86 other groups by signing an open letter to Congress in 2013."
But that doesn't make sense.
"If we ever receive such a request, we would seek to let the public know it existed."
Isn't the whole point of a canary that you cannot directly let users know?
[ + ] La_Chalupacabra
[ - ] La_Chalupacabra 2 points 4.3 yearsMar 5, 2021 01:36:49 ago (+2/-0)
By having a warrant canary, a sitemaster can simply cease updating on a previously-established interval to indicate to the userbase without violating any law that something has changed to which they are not at liberty to disclose.
[ + ] removed
[ - ] removed 1 point 4.3 yearsMar 5, 2021 00:42:48 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] Drain0
[ - ] Drain0 [op] 1 point 4.3 yearsMar 5, 2021 01:49:24 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] account deleted by user
[ - ] account deleted by user 1 point 4.3 yearsMar 5, 2021 09:47:59 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] account deleted by user
[ - ] account deleted by user 1 point 4.3 yearsMar 6, 2021 15:57:42 ago (+1/-0)