Legality of warrant canaries

[Griffin Boyce]

Hey all,

   There's been a lot of discussion around warrant canaries lately, and I 
just want to pipe in with my experience.

   Back in 2012, I talked to my attorney about setting up a warrant 
canary or a dead man's switch -- which he pointed out would have the 
same legal repercussions as just releasing the gagged warrant/NSL.  Why? 
  Because they are frequently phrased in such a way that if you do or 
fail to do a thing to somehow make it known, then you've violated the 
order.  You're in just as much trouble if you take out a billboard or 
tweet a scan of the order or use pantomime or comment out a warrant 
canary.

   The only difference is that there *might* be plausible deniability if 
you tell your partner "something happened at work today and I can't tell 
you what it is" [1], whereas you have *no* ability to deny anything if 
you remove a publicized warrant canary from a website.  I'm not saying 
don't do it, but maybe talk to a lawyer first.

~Griffin

[1] 
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/what-its-like-to-get-a-national-security-letter

-- 
"I believe that usability is a security concern; systems that do
not pay close attention to the human interaction factors involved
risk failing to provide security by failing to attract users."
~Len Sassaman