Warrant canary

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Under the USA PATRIOT Act, keepers of records of any kind can be prosecuted if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information related to terror investigations.

It is unclear if this provision remains in effect: "On March 14, 2013, Judge Susan Illston of Federal District Court in San Francisco struck down the law establishing NSLs, writing that the prohibition on disclosure of receipt of such an order made the statute “impermissibly overbroad” under the First Amendment. Judge Illston's ruling also struck down a statute prohibiting legal challenges by recipients of the security letters, but stayed implementation of her ruling to allow the government to appeal the decision." &mdash;

Furthermore, the legality of warrant canaries has never been tested in court, so there is no reason to think that they are any more legal than simply announcing that one has received a subpoena-and-gag-order.

Reference

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 * : no information as of 2013-11-12