With all of the submissions regarding the collection of personal data, rsync commented about a feature they have with their service referred to as a warrant canary. Hopefully this is of interest as many are still not familiar with them.<p>http://www.rsync.net/resources/notices/canary.txt<p>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_canary
Providing some context and clickable links:<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_canary" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_canary</a><p><pre><code> A warrant canary is a method used by an Internet service
provider to inform their customers that the provider has
not been served with a secret government subpoena. Such
subpoenas, including those covered under the USA Patriot
Act, provide criminal penalties for revealing the
existence of the warrant to any third party, including
the service provider's customers. A warrant canary may
be posted by the provider to inform customers of dates
that they haven't been served a secret subpoena. If the
canary has not been updated in the time period specified
by the host, customers are to assume that the host has
been served with such a subpoena. The intention is to
allow the provider to inform customers of the existence
of a subpoena passively, without violating any laws.
...
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<a href="http://www.rsync.net/resources/notices/canary.txt" rel="nofollow">http://www.rsync.net/resources/notices/canary.txt</a><p><pre><code> rsync.net Warrant Canary
Existing and proposed laws, especially as relate
to the US Patriot Act, etc., provide for secret
warrants, searches and seizures of data, such as
library records.
Some such laws provide for criminal penalties for
revealing the warrant, search or seizure, disallowing
the disclosure of events that would materially affect
the users of a service such as rsync.net.
rsync.net and its principals and employees will in
fact comply with such warrants and their provisions
for secrecy. rsync.net will also make available, weekly,
a "warrant canary" in the form of a cryptographically
signed message containing the following:
- a declaration that, up to that point, no warrants have
been served, nor have any searches or seizures taken
place
- a cut and paste headline from a major news source,
establishing date
Special note should be taken if these messages ever cease
being updated, or are removed from this page.
...
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I found the caveat at the end of the second link interesting:<p><pre><code> This scheme is not infallible. Although signing the
declaration makes it impossible for a third party to
produce arbitrary declarations, it does not prevent them
from using force to coerce rsync.net to produce false
declarations. ...</code></pre>