A warrant canary is a method by which a communications service provider aims to implicitly inform its users that the provider has been served with a government subpoena despite legal prohibitions on revealing the existence of the subpoena
We must stop the Asian longhorn beetles
These are worse than nothing because they might provide a false sense of security.
In September 2014, U.S. security researcher Moxie Marlinspike wrote that “every lawyer I’ve spoken to has indicated that having a ‘canary’ you remove or choose not to update would likely have the same legal consequences as simply posting something that explicitly says you’ve received something.”
Its right there in the wiki.
But why the fuck should it even be illegal to say that fbi breaks the law? First amendment anyone?
The law is just whatever the fuck the rich and the powerful want it to be.
Also in the wiki (only relevant for the US, but that’s where Marlinspike is from and likely talking about):
That said, case law specific to the United States would render the covert continuance of warrant canaries subject to constitutionality challenges. West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette and Wooley v. Maynard held that the Free Speech Clause prohibits compelling someone to speak against one’s wishes; this can easily be extended to prevent someone from being compelled to lie. New York Times Co. v. United States protects someone publishing government information, even if it is against the wishes of the government, except under grave and exceptional circumstances previously set by act and precedent. This may also have implications in regards to acting against a direct government intervention, similar to a government intervention against a warrant canary.
It’s not illegal (yet), so as long as you’re willing to fight an order to leave it up, you can ensure that your warrant canary is still effective. Either you take it down with no consequences, or you take it down, get arrested, and create case law.
Now, I wouldn’t trust most people or companies with a warrant canary to be willing to do that, but I’d probably trust a wc from Cory Doctorow, for example.
We think of canaries as birds, but there’s another canary I know about, but I don’t know the name.
It means you have a document or you tell a story, but each person gets a slightly different version of it, so when the document or story leaks, you know who told by looking for the detail and keeping track of who gets what version. Tom Clancy used it in his spy books in the 1980s and I appears figured it was real. The obvious counter is, as the journalist protecting your source, get the leak from two of them, spot the difference, and remove it or change that part.
Actually, the anime The Promised Neverland does it, too. Boy genius Norman tells two kids different places contraband can be found. He tells a third kid that he told them different locations. The third boy then goes to the headmistress and tells the wrong information. His contraband is safe and he knows who he can’t trust.
Actually, the anime The Promised Neverland does it, too.
In the A Song of Ice and Fire books, followed by the unfortunate show made from them, Tyrion Lannister also does this with Little Finger, Varys, and Maester Pycelle. I’m pretty sure it’s also used in the Deniro/Pacino movie The Heat. I don’t think this exact story device really has a set name per se, but similar things have been called canary traps, so maybe that’s part of why you were reminded of it in relation to warrant canaries. Broadly speaking, it’s a mole hunt. A very similar concept but not exactly the same would be a steganographic leak test which is what @fizzle@quokk.au commented about.
I read the first four ASoIaF books, but lost interest waiting for book 5. But that absolutely sounds like something Tyrion would do. (I’ve seen the entire HBO series, but that doesn’t really count. I hope one day Martin decides to finish the story, though I suppose if I really cared, I could just read the fanfic “The North Remembers”. It sounds like it ends how I want it to (with the Starks coming out on top), though I was really pulling for a Jon/Dany wedding or at least alliance with a proper return to Targaryen form with two “good” ones leading the way.
Yes, all the canaries in today’s discussion are metaphorical references to the literal birds, the “canary in a coal mine.”
Coal miners were often killed by suffocation when they would accidentally release or encounter pockets of carbon monoxide, which was odorless and invisible. (Edit: also possibly other toxic gases) So they began carrying a canary in a cage with them. Being little, it was more susceptible than they. If the canary keeled over, you knew to get the hell out of there! Of course many canaries died. But the miners grew fond of their little yellow chirpers, and started to be more vigilant against the effects of the carbon monoxide. Like if the bird stopped singing. This was a win-win, because fewer miners died as well.
Edit to add: And they sometimes even attached a little O2 tank to the cage to save the canary. WWI tunnel mine exploding teams sometimes used canaries as well for the same thing.
IDK if its true but I heard of cartographers doing something similar. Include some fictitious minor feature somewhere so you can demonstrate that someone has copied your map.
Paper towns. As in, towns that only exist on paper. There’s also a movie with that name, Paper Towns, though I can’t recall if it’s related to the concept. IIRC, it mentions the term at least. It’s absolutely true. Back when paper maps were a thing, they would put some random town in, and look for it in competitors’ maps.
Now that we have satnav, things like Google/Apple Maps and various others, I think they’re mostly a thing of the past.
If I remember correctly, Marvel/Disney started doing this with the MCU (along with not telling some cast like tom Holland spoilers because they suck at keeping quiet), according to some of those “behind the scenes” type youtube channels (heavy spoilers, MasterTainment, Nerdstalgic, etc)
I’ve heard Peter Jackson did this with the hobbit and George Lucas with star wars, but I don’t know how accurate those are, as I can’t even recall where I heard them. So massive tub of salt and all that…
I’ve actually done this myself, when telling a story I’ve changed the names of some people involved, and when I inevitably heard back from someone who shouldn’t have known, I know who told them based on what name are dropped. It helped cut someone shitty out of my life but I don’t like essentially lying to and testing my friends…
As a very recent example:
Canadian election databases use “canary traps”—and they work
That was super interesting, thanks for sharing
get the leak from two of them
Easier said than done to just magically have a second source leaking information to you.
True, but I mean, if you did, you’d compare them and go from there.
Tyrion Lannister does this in Game of Thrones (I want to say in Clash of Kings, but it’s been like 15 years since I’ve read the books)
So if I interpret correctly, it is a sign to warn that this place has been raided?
No, it’s a sign that warn that it has been raided after it’s gone. It says nothing while still up.
But then, couldn’t FBI just not take it down? Giving us a false sense of security?
The FBI doesn’t have anything to do with that. It’s the company or organization that does it. They’re not allowed to positively say that they have been raided, but maybe they get through the loophole by not saying anymore that they haven’t been raided.
Yeah unless you’re in the fifth circuit the judges were not born yesterday. Whatever penalty they threaten you with for notifying folk of the subpoena, guess what you will incur
Secret raids should be unconstitutional
It’s one thing to not disclose details, but to hide it’s existence is unhinged
While I generally agree there are reasons and circumstances when (and I did not sleep last night let me get at least one REM cycle the best example I can think up right now is butt tax evasion) the government might have reasonable cause to keep a raid secret until trial/grand jury
Simultaneously abusing that and “right to speedy trial”…
Yeah unless you’re in the fifth circuit the judges were not born yesterday.
Could have fucking fooled me
The person who put it there takes it down
Ah, I see.
In the most simplest terms, it’s a statement of a negative that, when removed, implies a positive.
You can use them for anything.
🐤🐥🐤🐥🐤🐥🐤🐥⚰️
I thought canaries are now overruled?
If the fbi goes there they have to take it down look it up
