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Meredith Whittaker, the President of the Signal Foundation, has come to the defense of the messaging app’s security following reports that high-ranking officials from the Trump administration accidentally included a journalist in an encrypted group chat that pertained to U.S. military operations in Yemen, according to Reuters.
While Whittaker did not specifically comment on the incident itself, she reiterated Signal’s standing as the “gold standard in private communications.” In a post shared on platform X, she emphasized Signal’s nonprofit, open-source model and its stringent commitment to end-to-end encryption for user data protection, drawing a comparison to Meta’s WhatsApp.
Signal has seen a rise in popularity across the United States and Europe, primarily due to its low data collection practices. Market intelligence firm Sensor Tower reported a 16% increase in Signal downloads in the U.S. during the first quarter of 2025 compared to the previous quarter, marking a 25% increase over the same quarter last year.
During a February interview with Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, Whittaker criticized WhatsApp’s approach to metadata collection. She stated that while WhatsApp does encrypt messages, it also collects metadata that reveals communication patterns, such as who interacts with whom and the frequency of these interactions.
In her post on X, she pointed out that WhatsApp complies with legal requests by turning over this sensitive data to authorities.
In response, a spokesperson for WhatsApp defended the app’s use of metadata, stating it helps reduce spam and enhance user safety. “We do not maintain logs of who is messaging or calling, and we don’t track personal messages for advertising purposes,” the spokesperson explained.
As government officials and journalists increasingly rely on encrypted messaging apps for confidential discussions, the scrutiny of these platforms has intensified. Although Signal is generally recognized as a highly secure messaging service, the recent U.S. military leak has reignited discussions about the potential vulnerabilities present in even the most secure platforms.
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