Latest news with #MeredithWhittaker
Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Times
Signal boss: ‘disturbing' laws show the UK doesn't understand tech
S tudying a book in a café window on a cobbled Parisian street, Meredith Whittaker, curly haired, tattooed and dressed all in black, has the air of a scholarly punk. When I ask what's on her mind, the boss of Signal, WhatsApp's privacy-obsessed messaging rival, stares deep into my eyes with a look that suggests the answer should be obvious: the rise of the 'robot butler'. In the tech world Whittaker inhabits, entrepreneurs and investors salivate over a not-too-distant future where average Joes will have their own low-cost, errand-running AI agents. 'It books a concert for you,' Whittaker recites. 'It finds a time; what date would work for you and your friends. It messages your friends to co-ordinate, and then puts that in your calendar.'
Axios
22-07-2025
- Business
- Axios
Silicon Valley leans out
With the exception of Bluesky CEO Jay Gruber and Signal CEO Meredith Whittaker, there are hardly any women leading major social media or messaging companies anymore. Why it matters: Women and underrepresented groups are some of the internet's most active and engaged users, but they also tend to be the biggest targets of online abuse. Zoom in: The resignation of X CEO Linda Yaccarino has left a void among Silicon Valley's leadership that doesn't seem likely to be filled anytime soon. Meta last week named longtime executive Connor Hayes as its new head of the Threads app. Instagram is led by Adam Mosseri. WhatsApp is led by Will Cathcart. The parent company is led by founder Mark Zuckerberg. YouTube in 2023 named Neal Mohan as the replacement to the late Susan Wojcicki, who led the company as CEO for nearly a decade. Nirav Tolia replaced Sarah Friar as CEO of Nextdoor in 2024. TikTok, Twitch, Spotify, Apple, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, LinkedIn, Telegram, Substack and Patreon are all led by men, although many of those companies feature women prominently elsewhere in the C-suite. By the numbers: Big Tech's women leadership gap isn't as pronounced overall as it is within social media and messaging. This year, 11% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women. Within the 52 tech companies, six — or 11.5% — are women. Those women lead companies in computer software, computers and office equipment, information technology services, internet services and retailing, as well as semiconductors and other electronic components. There are no female CEOs at social media and messaging companies on the Fortune 500 list. Between the lines: Female executives of social media and messaging apps mostly hold leadership positions in finance, communications, human resources, legal and marketing. There are few women in leading revenue roles at these companies. Susan Li was named Meta's CFO in 2022, replacing David Wehner. In 2023, Ruth Porat elevated to the role of president and chief investment officer of Google. Jen Wong is the chief operating officer at Reddit. Michelle Weaver serves as the CFO of Twitch. Julia Brau Donnelly is the CFO at Pinterest. Sarah Leary, the co-founder of Nextdoor, is CMO and chief global business operations officer. Communications chiefs at Twitch, Spotify, Snapchat, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Nextdoor, and Substack are all women.
Fast Company
17-06-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
WhatsApp's new ad feature sparks backlash—and a golden opportunity for Signal
Meta's decision to introduce advertisements into WhatsApp has reignited competition in the secure messaging space, giving rival app Signal a fresh opening to make a pitch for users. After the tech giant announced it would begin to include ads in WhatsApp's Updates tab, which is used by roughly 1.5 million people per day, Signal president Meredith Whittaker took to X to lure users to her messaging tool: 'Use Signal,' she wrote. 'We promise, no AI clutter, no surveillance ads—whatever the rest of the industry does.' Signal and WhatsApp have long competed to attract encryption-minded users. Meta's promises that its new WhatsApp ad features would be implemented 'in the most privacy-oriented way possible,' have done little to quell doubts. Max Schrems, a data privacy advocate who runs the European non-profit Noyb, warned that with the addition of ads Metawas blatantly ignoring EU privacy laws. 'Meta seems to follow the approach by the Trump administration and simply ignores EU rules as somehow 'illegitimate,'' he wrote in a blog post. 'European regulators urgently need to take clear action.' Privacy concerns overMeta's data practices reached a fever pitch in 2018 with the Cambridge Analytica scandal. In 2021, WhatsApp saw another wave of users migrate to Signal after a privacy policy update allowed for increased data sharing with businesses and third-parties. Monday's addition of ads raised more concerns. As Lena Cohen, a staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation told Fast Company this week, 'the fact that Meta has promised that it's adding ads to WhatsApp with privacy in mind does not make me trust this new feature.' Signal is adept at turning such moments into branding opportunities. Earlier this year, it saw a surge in sign-ups in the midst of the 'Signalgate' national security crisis —when a journalist from The Atlantic was accidentally added to a private Signal group chat involving the highest levels of government that discussed, in real time, an imminent U.S. military strike—in part because it became part of the national discussion, but also because Signal ensured the story wasn't spun to blame the app for the leak Whittaker has never hesitated to take a swing at WhatsApp and Meta, either. Earlier this year, in an interview with a Dutch newspaper, she discussed the app's data collection, saying 'It tells you exactly who you're communicating with, at what time, how often, and where you are. You can derive so much from that. WhatsApp can link that information to Facebook, to Instagram and to payment data that they could buy into. Signal simply doesn't have all that data.' Will Cathcart, WhatsApp's head, denied that, saying his product used the same security protocol as Signal. (The war of words continued to escalate between the two for days to follow.) While Signal might have the guerrilla marketing upper hand, WhatsApp wins when it comes to scale. WhatsApp reportedly has roughly three billion monthly active users globally, and Signal has an estimated 40 to 70 million. Signal is a nonprofit and open-source platform, whereas WhatsApp has benefited from Meta's resources and marketing muscle (advantages that aid in user growth but can also prompt suspicions). 'Meta's business model is based on collecting as much data as they can about people in order to sell highly targeted ads,' the EFF's Cohen tells Fast Company. 'The reason this new [WhatsApp] feature concerns me is that it creates yet another opportunity for Meta to abuse people's private information.'
The Verge
17-06-2025
- Business
- The Verge
announced yesterday
Signal says it won't add AI or ads like WhatsApp. WhatsApp that it will now show ads from businesses through its Stories-like feature, months after adding an unnecessary floating AI button to the main chat interface. In response, Signal president Meredith Whittaker has promised 'no AI clutter, no surveillance ads — whatever the rest of the industry does' for the independent nonprofit messaging app.
France 24
28-05-2025
- Business
- France 24
Why online privacy is vital: Insights from messaging app Signal's president
The president of Signal, a secure messaging app, spoke to FRANCE 24 about the urgent need to protect personal data. Meredith Whittaker highlighted how a handful of big tech companies collect vast amounts of information – often with little oversight and frequent misuse. She emphasised the need for structural change to regulate how companies handle user data. Signal is advocating for stronger privacy protections while defending freedom of expression. She spoke to us in Perspective.
