Submission + - Reddit has deleted its 'warrant canary' (reuters.com)
Arthur Dent '99 writes: Today Reddit deleted wording in its transparency report that would normally indicate that they had not received any "national security letters" or "other classified requests for user information". Such "national security letters" contain penalties for telling anyone about the request, as the government wishes to keep the request secret. However, because Reddit had placed pre-existing wording in their transparency report in the event of such a letter, they were able to simply delete the existing wording to passively inform others that a request had been received, without actually saying anything at all. This usage of pre-existing wording is known as a "warrant canary" to indicate danger, much as real canaries were used in the past to indicate the presence of deadly gases in coal mines.
