Signal president Meredith Whittaker justified the security of the messaging app on Wednesday after the head Trump officials accidentally added a journalist to an encrypted chat discussing the possibility of a US strike on Yemeni Houthi rebels.
Though Whittaker did not specifically comment on the incident—demanded by Democratic lawmakers as a national security breach—she reaffirmed Signal’s dedication to privacy. On X, she termed the app as the “gold standard in private comms” and mentioned its benefits over Meta-owned WhatsApp.
Signal Stresses Privacy Advantages Over WhatsApp
We’re nonprofit, open source, and we build and implement (end-to-end encryption) and privacy-protection tech throughout our system to safeguard metadata and message contents,” Whittaker said.
Signal has become increasingly popular in the United States and Europe as users turn away from WhatsApp because of data collection concerns. US downloads of Signal during the first quarter of 2025 rose by 16% from the prior quarter and 25% from the year-earlier period, Sensor Tower, a market intelligence company, reported.
In a Feb. interview with Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, Whittaker slammed WhatsApp’s data practices, contending that the app monitors metadata to monitor interactions.
“When forced, like all of these companies that hoover up the data in the first place, they turn this valuable, insight-giving data over,” she wrote in her X post.
Even as growing concerns around security and privacy build, Meta hasn’t replied to requests for comment.
