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slau | 2 days ago

Unfortunately it is quite clear today that canaries never really worked, or more charitably, don’t work anymore.

While you might have been able to “gotcha” the court, it would also have been a sure fire way to end up in contempt.

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Bender|2 days ago

That's pretty much how a few executives and corporate lawyers explained it to me when I suggested creating one. It's not just the legal aspect but there are unwritten agreements between corporations and the judicial system that would be tainted when playing such games. Corporations do everything they can to stay in the good graces of the legal system otherwise that relationship can become very contentious and litigious as companies stretch the gray areas of law all the time and the government generally leave them alone i.e. look the other way.

It usually ends up working the other way around. Companies will bend over backwards to assist the government even when the law does not require it or when a warrant would normally be required. When a company is saying otherwise "we will stick it to the man" that is just a show to obtain confidence of customers and prospects. Lavabit [1][2] was a perfect example of what happens when a company tries to fight this paradigm.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavabit

[2] - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/03/lavabit-ladar-...

fsflover|2 days ago

But can it still work for non-profits? For example, Qubes OS has a canary.