Part question, part open discussion, part "feature request" for snapzu, in light of reddit's warrant canary situation
One snap about reddit's warrant canary, and another.
I checked the privacy policy, the blog, and the FAQ, yet haven't found any information about any type of transparency reports, or canaries for snapzu. EFF post on the subject from a couple of years ago, with ISPs as their main topic. I also have a bad habit of skimming online pages in the midst of doing other things, so that is part of the question, so if something like this exists, it is good information to know where to look. Not even sure if this is something that others would want to see, or how needed it is. Namely, between the community, and the content standards, the site is extremely mellow. And well, currently, it is still being debated in the courts, to the point where different stories link to the amicus brief spez made mention of in relation to reddit's canary.
In the end, I wouldn't ask the team to do anything they would be uncomfortable doing. Even a well composed sentence or paragraph that outlines even a kind of "we're looking into this, but here are some outside links about the topic" would be enough for me until some of the courts, appeals, and other situations are handled. Which also goes into, I am not even sure which country the site is primarily based in, and that will also impact how it is able to go forward talking about these types of legal issues. If nothing else, if you use other online "social media", keep an eye out for how they talk about these topics.
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Based in Canada, Snapzu isn’t subject to the U.S. Patriot Act or U.S. National Security Letters; even though it has lately become U.S. policy that the Internet, and indeed the entire physical world, is U.S. jurisdiction. There is a corresponding legislative overreach in Canada, once known as Bill C-51 which, like the Patriot Act, is bizarre, authoritarian nonsense that ended any pretense we live in an open, civil society. The faith people put in warrant canaries is misplaced. There is no fig leaf that will cover how ideals around freedom of thought and expression were ritually sacrificed by our national legislative bodies to grotesque new gods of ‘national security’ and ‘anti-terrorism.’ By the time your librarians and your ISPs are unconstitutionally bound not to reveal you’re being monitored by federal authorities, any hopes that the ‘canary in the coal mine’ still being alive means everything’s fine are deluded.
Yeah, couldn't quite recall what the relevant bill in Canada was, or even how much it could be taken for granted for years after the initial Snowden reveals, the five eyes pretty much makes certain expectations of privacy moot. And that is without going into how future impacts from the TPP come into play. "The TPP's Electronic Commerce and Telecommunications Chapters establish only the weakest baseline for the protection of your private data—even enforcing self-regulation by the companies that profit from your data is enough. On the other hand, stronger privacy laws are outlawed if they amount to an “arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised restriction on trade.”"
Still think mulling over the topic, and how it pertains to the site can't be a bad thing, especially with how between twitter, and reddit, this conversation is just going to push the idea of transparency reports more front and centre, and why they matter even if they are just a form of civil protest over the authoritarian measures in place in different countries.
EDIT: Though I do think if the topic ends up being, "these are flawed, because that is the current state of affairs" is hilarious, frightening, and indicative of one of the reasons why I still browse this site more then some others.
This hits home for me. The scary idea that any website can be forced to give years of information on users to the government. It is bad enough that many companies can pay just to get that information any time they want. Heck half the time you can go directly to a companies website and you give them all of your information for free. Then they sell it. Lets just say.. no lets IMAGINE that a company reserves the right to your information as soon as you click the LIKE, FOLLOW, or SHARE button. Let's imagine that millions of people give up their information so willingly to a company that the fact that the Government has to ASK for information almost becomes ridiculous. Lets imagine a world were this data, your data, is used to build brands and mold thought for news, television, products. Lets imagine that this data can be sold as a hot commodity that is worth more than actual money in most cases. Lets imagine that the newest group of IT engineers work on nothing but gathering information and have no problem with following people around and feeding big data because that is were the prestige and the money is. A new generation of coders and script junkies who never ask "Is this right?" but more often ask "How much will I get paid?" What a world that would be right? The government has nothing on Big Data as we see it today. The Government is years behind in dealing with data and it shows.
It is a chance we all take when we log on to our computers and surf away. Now you can say "We need transparency to protect us!" but the fact is that all you have to do is open your eyes for once and see what exactly going on. After that you will have to come to grips with the way the world is because there is no way to turn back.
Well that was encouraging!
It's not meant to scare anyone. That is the world we live in and we need to understand that. The fear goes away once people learn to deal with it appropriately or in my case inappropriately. At this second there is company out there compiling tons of data to see how they can profit on the 18 to 27 affluent female thoughts and preferences. That's how brands are built. Once the view of the target audiences change than the companies change the adds, shows, movies, and news. The company I work for does this allllll the time. When things in the social world wide web change the programing,scripts, and promotions change. The government is definitely good at getting data but not so great at using it. With that being said I would like everyone to be more piratical for the next 6 months I guarantee that we will have a very interesting change in media.