[dlight]

This is interesting. Question: this is a one-time-use warning system? Once a single warrant has been executed, this signal loses information, especially over time. Can it be restarted, but with a new start date, so that external observers can piece together when warrants are executed?

[rsync]

Well, to be clear, there is nothing wrong with serving - or responding - to search warrants or requests for evidence, etc.

We will, in fact, comply with any form of proper legal service. We do not want customers using our service to commit criminal acts.

So if a "normal" warrant is issued, we will simply add that to the canary that is published every Monday. If it does not hinder the legal proceedings we may even identify what the warrant was about or even publish it. On the other hand, if that would be harmful we will simply note that we received one.

On the other hand, if we are prohibited from even mentioning that we have received some form of legal service at one of our locations, we will follow that prohibition. We will also stop updating the canary.

... and that is where your question comes in ...

rsync.net is by no means a household name. However, if we stopped publishing our warrant canary, people would notice. It would be a news event in some circles and would continue to be noteworthy as it continued to not be updated.

I think that if this occurred we would only restart our updates of the warrant canary on the other side of a long legal process. At that time, the new warrant canary would make reference to the (now finalized) legal proceedings.

[marcenuc]

Thank you for this explanation, it helped me to understand better how it works. It is a really nice initiative!

Another really happy customer.

[carpedimebagjoe]

For grins, I profile peeked - at present time, your karma is extraordinarily evil: 16666.

[dlight]

Also pretty happy customer here. I really appreciated getting a text when my daily backups had failed to connect for 7 days.