In this special interview episode of the 404 Media podcast, I sat down with Meredith Whittaker, the president of the Signal Foundation, which supports the encrypted messaging app Signal. As one of the few journalists who has revealed new details about backdoors, I thought this was a fascinating wide-ranging discussion with one of the most important people in the world of encryption. Paid subscribers got early access to this episode; if you’re not already a subscriber, you can sign up here.
Whittaker talks about the threat of AI to end-to-end encryption, including to Microsoft’s recently announced Recall feature:
“Just a plaintext honeypot on your OS. That includes screenshots of your Signal desktop messages, if you’re using Signal desktop. That fundamentally violates that contract between Signal and the person using it, which is then being subverted by the operating system manufacturer.” (After a backlash, Microsoft said it will switch off the Recall system by default).
That to her knowledge, Signal engineers have not been approached by officials from the FBI, which is something Telegram CEO Pavel Durov claimed happened to his own staff:
“It feels like a mythologized version of a real concern that doesn’t hold water.”
And how the size of Signal’s user base ebbs and flows with political events:
“We see growth perpetuated by collective events, or collectives. A very easy one is political volatility, when the distance between physical safety and digital privacy collapses.”
Listen to the weekly podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Become a paid subscriber for access to this episode's bonus content and to power our journalism. If you become a paid subscriber, check your inbox for an email from our podcast host Transistor for a link to the subscribers-only version! You can also add that subscribers feed to your podcast app of choice and never miss an episode that way. Subscribers got early access to this episode.
- Dark Wire: The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation Ever
- Signal page on government data requests
- Microsoft Will Switch Off Recall by Default After Security Backlash
- Telegram CEO Pavel Durov interview
