Reddit hints that US now spying on its customers

It seems that the federal government has made a demand -- in a controversial secret court -- to spy on Reddit users. Normally, the discussion website Reddit would never be allowed to even acknowledge that it received such a request. But thanks to a legal hack, the company has tipped off its customers. Federal agencies have a tool of mass surveillance called a "National Security Letter."

It's a formal request that's usually issued by the FBI to an American company seeking information about customers. The legal demand is approved by a federal judge sitting on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court -- whose proceedings are kept secret -- and the subject company must stay absolutely silent about it. Sometimes, even a company's CEO doesn't know. If this request is anything like previous ones, the government is likely seeking the true identities of some Reddit customers by obtaining computer logs of all their activity on the website. The government is also likely looking at the Internet Protocol address of customers' computers to figure out their physical location. Ever since ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 revealed the extent of US government surveillance, some technology companies have adopted a legal hack to alert the public when they receive these secret demands for information. It's called a "warrant canary." Here's the logic: Although a company can't say when it has received a National Security Letter, it can say when it has not received one. So, some companies have included special language in public statements saying things like, "We haven't received an NSL yet." The idea is, when an NSL comes around, the language disappears. It's like a canary in a coal mine that dies when exposed to toxic gas.