Encrypted messenger app Signal has appointed Meredith Whittaker, a former Alphabet Inc GOOGGOOGL as its first President, adding to the roster of tech critics leading the encrypted messaging app, the Washington Post reports.
The Googlemanagerhas been outspoken about the harms of Big Tech.
Signal is committed to encryption in an industry built on collecting personal data.
Non-profit-backed Signal competes against WhatsApp and iMessage, championed by Facebook parent Meta Platforms IncMETA and Apple IncAAPL.
Whittaker looks to focus on sustaining Signal, which hopes to support itself with small donations from millions of users.
“It costs tens of millions of dollars per year to develop and maintain an app like Signal,” she said.
Whittaker says that the only way to escape technology that makes money off your data is by paying for products that don’t.
Whittaker, a member of Signal’s board since 2020, rose to prominence for worker activism at Google before it ousted her.
Most recently, Federal Trade Commissioner Lina Khan tapped Whittaker as a senior adviser on AI.
The app experienced a massive spike in downloads last year during a privacy backlash after WhatsApp changed its policy on data collection on user interactions with businesses.
Signal currently has 140.9 million downloads across the App Store and Google Play.
She said that Signal is not interested in increasing profit or attention on ads but instead creating a network effect of encrypted communication.
Tesla Inc TSLA chief Elon Musk praised Signal and recommended thatTwitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) have end-to-end encryption for its direct messages to ensure security.
Unlike Signal and Whatsapp, Twitter’s direct messages are not end-to-end encrypted.
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