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bibinou | 3 years ago

I'm pretty sure they don't check. "May" now means "legal told us to ask you to PLEASE don't do this".

Related, I often see people trip on the sense of MAY in RFCs (https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt), because in everyday use it has become "passive-agressive must".

edit: I'm ESL so might be reading way to much into this.

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genewitch|3 years ago

"may not" is kind of weird, and probably was a legal team decision. "passwords can not be reused" would imply security issues that an A+ certified fresh-faced intern would prickle at, but "should not be reused" is too mealy and "Do not feed the ducks"-ish.

Also while "MAY" in RFCs per that document mean something, press releases aren't RFCs and there may be significant amounts of money riding on the exact interpretation of what those words mean.

And "reading way too much into" is the bread and butter of lawyers, technologists, and mathematicians. Don't worry about it!