Signal Messenger

"Alt tech,encryption"  Signal Messenger   (Big tech, Corporation)
Type	•  Encrypted voice calling •  video calling and instant messaging
A messaging service funded by the CIA. Found in 2026 to not be deleting messages properly.

Signal is an encrypted messaging service for instant messaging, voice, and video calls. The instant messaging function includes sending text, voice notes, images, videos, and other files.Communication may be one-to-one between users or may involve group messaging.

Funding

"Never acknowledged in any serious way by the mainstream media, encrypted messaging app Signal’s origins as a US government asset are a matter of extensive public record, even if the scope and scale of the funding provided has until now been secret."

Failure to allow anonymous sign up

The most requested feature of Signal was the chance to use anonymous usernames rather than phone numbers as IDs, but this was resisted, ostensibly in a bid to prevent spam.

Failure to delete messages

In 2026 it was reported that the FBI were able to recover messages Signal messages from iOS devices that users had "deleted". Meredith Whittaker, president of Signal, framed the behaviour as an OS bug, stating "Notifications for deleted messages shouldn’t remain in any OS notification database".

Use by Norwegian government officials

During Covid, when deciding how to implement lockdowns and other measures, state secretaries in the government used Signal to communicate between themselves. With the feature that it deletes the messages automatically, the use is an attempt at circumvention of the Freedom of Information Act.

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