“We don’t want to be the outlier that proves the rule, we want to be a new set of rules that paves the way to a much more open and diverse technology ecosystem,” Whittaker said, “that’s not dependent on five companies and 15 people and one paradigm.” “which is very, very outdated and ultimately not healthy for the world or the future.”
It costs around 50 million dollars a year Signal and Whittaker noted at the event that there are no easy answers to finding that kind of funding (or more) for projects that need consistent, independent, and secure support without being subject to the forces of data monetization and surveillance capitalism.
“None of this is simple, man,” Whittaker said. “There is a type of capital that we need. How do we achieve it?
Trump’s first US presidency was increasingly hostile to encryption and independent technology, so with a new Trump administration approaching and anti-encryption advocates making inroads into governments around the world, what’s next for Signal?
“Signal knows who we are. Signal will remain Signal,” says Whittaker. “Signal has one thing to do and we do it very well and quite obsessively, and that is: provide a truly private communications infrastructure for everyone, everywhere in the world. Final point. “We are not going to change.”