Reddit deletes surveillance 'warrant canary' in transparency report
15 replies, posted
[quote]Social networking forum reddit on Thursday removed a section from its site used to tacitly inform users it had never received a certain type of U.S. government surveillance request, suggesting the platform is now being asked to hand over customer data under a secretive law enforcement authority.
Reddit deleted a paragraph found in its transparency report known as a “warrant canary” to signal to users that it had not been subject to so-called national security letters, which are used by the FBI to conduct electronic surveillance without the need for court approval.
The scrubbing of the "canary", which stated reddit had never received a national security letter "or any other classified request for user information," comes as several tech companies are pushing the Obama administration to allow for fuller disclosures of the kind and amount of government requests for user information they receive.
National security letters are almost always accompanied by an open-ended gag order barring companies from disclosing the contents of the demand for customer data, making it difficult for firms to openly discuss how they handle the subpoenas. That has led many companies to rely on somewhat vague canary warnings.
"I've been advised not to say anything one way or the other," a reddit administrator named "spez," who made the update, said in a thread discussing the change. “Even with the canaries, we're treading a fine line.”[/quote]
[url]http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-reddit-idUSKCN0WX2YF[/url]
[url]https://www.reddit.com/wiki/transparency/2014[/url]
[url]https://www.reddit.com/wiki/transparency/2015[/url]
Remove America.
[QUOTE]
"I've been advised not to say anything one way or the other," a reddit administrator named "spez," who made the update, said in a thread discussing the change. “Even with the canaries, we're treading a fine line.”[/QUOTE]
I thought the whole point of the canaries is that they don't have to actually say anything or discuss them while still being able to get the point across. Seems a bit awkward to discuss them so openly.
April Fools??
[QUOTE=Kidd;50047136]April Fools??[/QUOTE]
Posted on the 31st
Spineless bastards.
A government shouldn't be able force a private company to lie for the government and say "We still haven't received any NSLs" so this loophole will do.
Note that the gag orders for NSLs have been ruled unconstitutional and back to constitutional over and over again. There's a chance it may not even be legal in the first place.
[QUOTE=Hogie bear;50047200]Spineless bastards.[/QUOTE]
I can't tell if this is a serious statement or not.
Everyone should be more surprised that its taken them this long to get served a subpoena. Reddit has a large and diverse internet footprint.
Everyone is acting like everything is being tracked on Reddit now which is absurd thinking and a waste of FBI resources. Edgy teenagers being edgy teenagers.
[QUOTE=Code3Response;50048289]Everyone should be more surprised that its taken them this long to get served a subpoena. Reddit has a large and diverse internet footprint.
Everyone is acting like everything is being tracked on Reddit now which is absurd thinking and a waste of FBI resources. Edgy teenagers being edgy teenagers.[/QUOTE]
Do we still have those subreddits with extremely borderline CP and equally creepy stuff? (not /r/creepshots)
[QUOTE=Code3Response;50048289]Everyone should be more surprised that its taken them this long to get served a subpoena. Reddit has a large and diverse internet footprint.
Everyone is acting like everything is being tracked on Reddit now which is absurd thinking and a waste of FBI resources. Edgy teenagers being edgy teenagers.[/QUOTE]
I'm not surprised or concerned that the government requires compliance from Reddit on criminal issues, especially considering the amount of questionable content that gets posted to the site, but I do have a problem with it being done in secret, with a gag order preventing Reddit from talking about the scope of the requests. We have no way of knowing what the scale is. The FBI probably isn't tracking everyone- but are they tracking 'persons of interest'? Are they tracking communities? Are they just gathering information on people who posted to Reddit and were subsequently arrested, or is it a more proactive approach? Are they amassing information on specific individuals they deem suspicious, or using digital analysis to flag anyone who meets some criteria?
Even if there's internal oversight from other federal bodies, if the people can't know the scope and depth of government surveillance they can't press their elected representatives to act on it. Transparency is key to democracy, and while there is a need for some things to stay secret in the legitimate interest of national security, there has to be disclosure whenever possible. I agree with you that the government [I]probably[/I] isn't doing anything abusive. I am often quick to criticize when people casually claim that the government is reading their email or tracking them or whatever the Orwellian accusation of the day is. But that doesn't mean that keeping everything in the dark is justified, and something is clearly wrong with the system when a company can't even publicly disclose that they're cooperating with the government to assist law enforcement.
Picturing NSL's just getting sent to random companies with the canary and in the NSL it's just cat picures, or "delete the canary lol dwi", etc.
[QUOTE=pentium;50048301]Do we still have those subreddits with extremely borderline CP and equally creepy stuff? (not /r/creepshots)[/QUOTE]
Nope.
[QUOTE=catbarf;50048674]The FBI probably isn't tracking everyone- but are they tracking 'persons of interest'? Are they tracking communities?[/quote]
Most-likely.
[quote]Are they amassing information on specific individuals they deem suspicious, or using digital analysis to flag anyone who meets some criteria?[/quote]
Probably.
Yea its a secret subpoena which likely means investigating something dealing with something that is bigger than I can imagine (national security interests). I would not worry about local law enforcement and Reddit (as seen by their transparency report), nor would I worry about big brother watching unless you post some stupid shit consistently on there that is threatening the president, leaking federal documents, or otherwise planning terrorist acts. Or they could be doing something malicious.
[QUOTE=wewt!;50043458]I thought the whole point of the canaries is that they don't have to actually say anything or discuss them while still being able to get the point across. Seems a bit awkward to discuss them so openly.[/QUOTE]
The allusion being made is to the canaries (or other song birds) that used to be brought down into mines. They would die faster than people if exposed to settled gasses, and their absence would be a stark contrast to their usual noisy clamor, allowing workers to escape before succumbing to the effects of oxygen displacement.
Since the canary has been removed one could say it is time to get out of the mine, as it is figuratively dead.
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