In 2018, she was an organizer of the Google Walkout, during which thousands of employees protested the company’s handling of sexual harassment claims and a contract with the Department of Defense. She started at Google in 2006 and eventually became the company’s Open Research Group leader. Whittaker says she almost exclusively uses Signal to communicate, though her therapist is the last holdout.
It’s since attracted millions of users, Whittaker says, who are concerned about Big Tech surveillance, looking for a secure communications tool, or have become disillusioned by competitor offerings, such as WhatsApp after its terms of service change. The platform stores minimal user data or information other than which phone numbers sign up for Signal accounts.
Signal launched in 2014 as a user-friendly form of encrypted messaging. “We have to figure out how to make money and how to exist to the standards set by the surveillance tech industry without participating in that surveillance.” “The surveillance business model that is underwriting most of the tech industry is not something we can participate in,” she says. In September, the longtime Google tech leader-and critic-was tapped to head the encrypted messaging app, monetize it, and develop a financially sustainable path forward. In her new job as Signal’s president, she’s figuring out an alternative. The “surveillance business model,” as Whittaker calls it, is lucrative and low-hanging fruit. If you ask Meredith Whittaker, Big Tech’s problems stem from its business model-one that incentivizes growth and revenue generation, often at the expense of user privacy.
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