
How to foil NSA sabotage: use a dead man's switch - Libertatea
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/09/nsa-sabotage-dead-mans-switch
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jere
>No one's ever tested this approach in court, and I can't say whether a judge
would be able to distinguish between "not revealing a secret order" and
"failing to note the absence of a secret order", but in US jurisprudence,
compelling someone to speak a lie is generally more fraught with
constitutional issues than compelled silence about the truth.

This is the worrying part. The dead man's switch conforms to a sort of twisted
logic that should stand up, but I can't see a judge agreeing with you.

Anyway, if it ever worked one time, I'm sure a law would be promptly
implemented that prevented you from saying when the FBI/NSA hasn't been there.

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plesner
I'd be worried it would play out something like this:

"We're not saying you have to lie, just that you can't tell anyone about this.
Whatever dead man's switch you've set up for yourself is none of our concern.
If you've arranged yourself such that you have to lie to keep this a secret
then you've compelled yourself to lie, not us."

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brokenparser
It hinges on "You have the right to remain silent.", if that's no longer true
all is lost.

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jlgaddis
You only have that right when you are being charged criminally, AIUI (same
reason you can't "plead the fifth" in a civil suit).

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jlgaddis
The author is describing, essentially, "warrant canary[0] as a service".

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_canary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_canary)

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a3n
The great thing about being the government is that even when the law is not on
the government's side, all they have to do is investigate and prosecute you to
death. They don't need a conviction to screw your life over for some years of
a drawn out prosecution.

