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Signal's president defended the app's security after Trump officials accidentally added a journalist to an encrypted chat on a potential US strike in Yemen.
Signal President Meredith Whittaker
Signal President Meredith Whittaker

While Whittaker hasn’t directly addressed the incident involving messages leaked from a Houthi rebel phone, she reaffirmed Signal’s ironclad security in a post on X, calling it the “gold standard in private comms.”

But who is Meredith Whittaker, and why does her voice matter in the tech privacy space?

Read more: What is Signal App? Yemen War Chat Leak, And Security Warnings

Meredith Whittaker: Tech Privacy Advocate and Signal's Forceful Leader

Whittaker is no stranger to tech policy or digital privacy. Before joining Signal in 2022, she spent over a decade at Google, where she co-founded the M-Lab project for internet transparency and became a central figure in the 2018 Google Walkout protesting ethical concerns over AI and military contracts.

She later became a prominent academic, serving as a research professor at NYU and co-founding the AI Now Institute, a research group focused on the social implications of artificial intelligence.

Whittaker keeps her personal life relatively private. Public records do not show confirmed details about her marital status or children. She is known for prioritizing her advocacy over the spotlight. Her estimated net worth is unclear, but given her nonprofit role and academic background, she's seen as mission-driven, not profit-motivated.

Signal vs WhatsApp: What Sets It Apart?

The controversy that brought Whittaker into headlines again stems from a reported Signal message allegedly recovered from a captured Houthi rebel phone. While critics say the leak undermines confidence in Signal’s encryption, experts note the breach likely happened at the device level—not through Signal itself.

In response, Whittaker reiterated Signal’s edge over competitors like WhatsApp:

“We’re open source, nonprofit, and we develop and apply end-to-end encryption and privacy-preserving tech across our system to protect metadata and message contents,” she wrote on X.

Unlike WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta, Signal collects minimal user data. It doesn’t store message logs or metadata—information that can reveal who contacted whom, when, and how often. This is a key concern Whittaker has frequently raised in interviews.

“When compelled, like all companies that collect the data to begin with, they turn this important, revealing data over,” she said, warning about WhatsApp’s metadata collection in a recent interview with Dutch outlet De Telegraaf.

WhatsApp responded by emphasizing that it uses metadata to prevent spam and abuse, not for ads or surveillance.

Signal's Growth Reflects Rising Privacy Concerns

Signal President Meredith Whittaker
Signal President Meredith Whittaker

Despite the controversy, Signal's growth shows no signs of slowing. According to Sensor Tower, U.S. downloads of Signal rose 16% in Q1 2025 compared to the previous quarter, and 25% year-over-year. It's especially popular among users seeking privacy-focused alternatives to Big Tech platforms.

Signal’s open-source model and nonprofit foundation make it a unique player in a market dominated by ad-driven giants. And with Meredith Whittaker at the helm, the app is increasingly seen as not just a tool—but a stance on digital freedom.