A warrant canary is a method by which a communications service provider aims to implicitly inform its users that the provider has been served with a government subpoena despite legal prohibitions on revealing the existence of the subpoena
A warrant canary is a method by which a communications service provider aims to implicitly inform its users that the provider has been served with a government subpoena despite legal prohibitions on revealing the existence of the subpoena
In the A Song of Ice and Fire books, followed by the unfortunate show made from them, Tyrion Lannister also does this with Little Finger, Varys, and Maester Pycelle. I’m pretty sure it’s also used in the Deniro/Pacino movie The Heat. I don’t think this exact story device really has a set name per se, but similar things have been called canary traps, so maybe that’s part of why you were reminded of it in relation to warrant canaries. Broadly speaking, it’s a mole hunt. A very similar concept but not exactly the same would be a steganographic leak test which is what @fizzle@quokk.au commented about.
I read the first four ASoIaF books, but lost interest waiting for book 5. But that absolutely sounds like something Tyrion would do. (I’ve seen the entire HBO series, but that doesn’t really count. I hope one day Martin decides to finish the story, though I suppose if I really cared, I could just read the fanfic “The North Remembers”. It sounds like it ends how I want it to (with the Starks coming out on top), though I was really pulling for a Jon/Dany wedding or at least alliance with a proper return to Targaryen form with two “good” ones leading the way.