

Rsync.net Warrant Canary - DASD

With all of the submissions regarding the collection of personal data, rsync commented about a feature they have with their service referred to as a warrant canary.  Hopefully this is of interest as many are still not familiar with them.<p>http://www.rsync.net/resources/notices/canary.txt<p>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_canary
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nkurz
Providing some context and clickable links:

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

    
    
      A warrant canary is a method used by an Internet service
      provider to inform their customers that the provider has
      not been served with a secret government subpoena. Such
      subpoenas, including those covered under the USA Patriot
      Act, provide criminal penalties for revealing the 
      existence of the warrant to any third party, including 
      the service provider's customers. A warrant canary may 
      be posted by the provider to inform customers of dates
      that they haven't been served a secret subpoena. If the
      canary has not been updated in the time period specified
      by the host, customers are to assume that the host has 
      been served with such a subpoena. The intention is to
      allow the provider to inform customers of the existence
      of a subpoena passively, without violating any laws.
    
      ...
    

[http://www.rsync.net/resources/notices/canary.txt](http://www.rsync.net/resources/notices/canary.txt)

    
    
      rsync.net Warrant Canary
    
      Existing and proposed laws, especially as relate
      to the US Patriot Act, etc., provide for secret 
      warrants, searches and seizures of data, such as
      library records.
    
      Some such laws provide for criminal penalties for
      revealing the warrant, search or seizure, disallowing
      the disclosure of events that would materially affect
      the users of a service such as rsync.net.
    
      rsync.net and its principals and employees will in
      fact comply with such warrants and their provisions
      for secrecy.  rsync.net will also make available, weekly,
      a "warrant canary" in the form of a cryptographically
      signed message containing the following:
    
      - a declaration that, up to that point, no warrants have   
        been served, nor have any searches or seizures taken
        place
    
      - a cut and paste headline from a major news source,
        establishing date
    
      Special note should be taken if these messages ever cease
      being updated, or are removed from this page.
    
      ...
    

I found the caveat at the end of the second link interesting:

    
    
      This scheme is not infallible.  Although signing the
      declaration makes it impossible for a third party to
      produce arbitrary declarations, it does not prevent them
      from using force to coerce rsync.net to produce false
      declarations.  ...

