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I'm not sure how useful that canary is going to be, though. Secure transfer of large files is a powerful tool for many people, including unsavory types like child porn distributors. I expect and encourage the government to investigate things like that, and those lawful, ethical investigations are going to bump the counter, making a lot of people think "The NSA is all up in our filez!".

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I think that's why it's important to pay attention to the President's reforms - as in, see which ones can make actual improvements even if they all can't. Changing the gag order process has the ability to do this b/c you can have, for example, a counter for child porn, a counter for domestic terrorism, a counter for foreign terrorism. Not by providing the service with any confidential files that are part of the case but by making sure some public advocate who does know the type of case can see to it that it's been coded into the gag order appropriately. I'm just spitballing off the top of my head but what argument would they have to not allow a service provider to show that child pornographers should not expect to be safe here - it's win win.

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