Cybersecurity hawks may have noticed today that the popular '"front page of the internet," Reddit, has officially deleted its "warrant canary," passively signaling to users that it may have received a secret surveillance subpoena from the U.S. government.
Warrant canaries are used by security-minded websites in order to reassure users that their private information, including private message details, IP addresses, and other secure information that is stored on the site have not been compromised or requested by any government entity. The deletion of the Reddit warrant canary has been interpreted by some users of the popular website that their information is not safe, and that someone – or many someones – in the Reddit community are currently under secret U.S. government surveillance.