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This is not difficult or even all that ambiguous. The whole point of a canary is to confirm a negative effect by the lack of an ongoing positive action. From t

This is not difficult or even all that ambiguous. The whole point of a canary is to confirm a negative effect by the lack of an ongoing positive action. From the site: - a declaration that, up to that point, no warrants have been served, nor have any searches or seizures taken place. Any such declaration disappeared at some point. The lack of a positive statement that the canary is valid (and everything's ok) is obviously deliberate, since the news items are both updated and signed. That's about as clear of an indication as possible given the circumstances. Even this was possibly risky, even though it shouldn't be. Respect their integrity.

IgorPartola 12y ago
I came here to say the same thing. If we start finding reasons why the disappearance of a declaration is for a reason other than the canary, then why bother with them at all? Instead, we should take these seriously every time. Then if there was a different reason for it to be removed, the organization can draw their own conclusions. Also, can we have a standard API for this type of thing?
pdkl95 12y ago
When you take a canary down into a mine and you notice that something unusual seems to be happening to the bird, the correct response is not to spend a lot of time trying to figure out if the bird is really dead, how the problem started, or how we could interpret the bird's behavior. When the canary you took into the mine suddenly looks strange, you run. Maybe the canary didn't actually have a problem. Maybe it died due to natural causes and the mine was perfectly safe. There might be reasonable explanations for the canary's behavior that would be obvious if you took the time to perform minimal investigation. None of that matters, because the entire purpose of taking a canary down into a mine is to have an early warning signal that might save your life. We cannot know the current situation of someone who publishes a warrant canary. What we do know that while any change might be a simple mistake, it could also be an attempt to announce some sort of warning. Just like taking the bird down into a mine, the early warning system might not be useful if you waste time arguing about it.

IgorPartola 12y ago

I came here to say the same thing. If we start finding reasons why the disappearance of a declaration is for a reason other than the canary, then why bother with them at all? Instead, we should take these seriously every time. Then if there was a different reason for it to be removed, the organization can draw their own conclusions. Also, can we have a standard API for this type of thing?

pdkl95 12y ago

When you take a canary down into a mine and you notice that something unusual seems to be happening to the bird, the correct response is not to spend a lot of time trying to figure out if the bird is really dead, how the problem started, or how we could interpret the bird's behavior. When the canary you took into the mine suddenly looks strange, you run. Maybe the canary didn't actually have a problem. Maybe it died due to natural causes and the mine was perfectly safe. There might be reasonable explanations for the canary's behavior that would be obvious if you took the time to perform minimal investigation. None of that matters, because the entire purpose of taking a canary down into a mine is to have an early warning signal that might save your life. We cannot know the current situation of someone who publishes a warrant canary. What we do know that while any change might be a simple mistake, it could also be an attempt to announce some sort of warning. Just like taking the bird down into a mine, the early warning system might not be useful if you waste time arguing about it.