> How hard is it to run a "canary watch" though? The overhead has to be pretty low. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to pull the plug.

I don't imagine the decision was based on resources, but rather on a realization that the "canary watch" didn't work, because people just didn't care. In that case, it might make more sense to abandon it rather than continue to suggest, in the face of evidence to the contrary, that it's a productive tool for keeping tabs on government overreach.

I think the missing part is the public uproar. I remember the public reaction to reddit's lost canary as, "ehh?"

I would somehow think that is itself a canary, but I have some misgivings about that.