2016 Warrant Canary Disappears, Signaling a Likely Secret Government Request
- Vector
- other
- Severity
- moderate
- Data exposed
- No confirmed disclosure; the removed statement implied receipt of a secret national-security request for user data
- Discovered
- 2016-03-31
- Disclosed
- 2016-04-01
- Date
- 2016-04-01
What happened
When Reddit published its 2015 transparency report in spring 2016, it quietly removed the warrant-canary language that had stated it had never received a National Security Letter, a FISA order or any other classified request for user information. Because such requests typically come with gag orders barring acknowledgment, the canary's disappearance was widely read as a signal that Reddit had received some form of secret government demand. CEO Steve Huffman said he had been advised not to comment either way. The change did not confirm a specific data disclosure, but it raised concerns about covert access to user information. Security and civil-liberties observers, including Bruce Schneier and the ACLU, flagged it as a meaningful, if legally untestable, transparency signal.