Signal profile

Donations support the service rather than a conventional advertising business.

Donations fund Signal’s communication infrastructure; its nonprofit structure replaces a conventional advertising business.

Resources are used to run and develop the messaging service rather than distribute profits to shareholders.

Nonprofit or mission-locked structure; no ordinary public equity valuation.

Donations support a messaging service without an advertising or attention-resale business model.

Signal’s core product is encrypted communication rather than a built-in general AI assistant. Private messaging is the central technical distinction.

The nonprofit Signal organisation develops the app and Signal Protocol implementation.

Signal says messages/calls are end-to-end encrypted by default and describes account registration plus limited operational information, rather than an advertising profile. Its published government-request material provides corroborating examples of the limited information available. Device security and recipient choices remain outside that guarantee.

Open-source code, public technical explanations and safety-number verification make important parts of the privacy design inspectable.

Use usernames and phone-number privacy controls, verify sensitive contacts and switch off stories if unwanted.

25/25 points

Signal’s limited-data claim is supported by its encryption design and published responses to government requests. These show why the operator may have very little to disclose. This does not protect a compromised device or stop the intended recipient saving a message.

25/25 points

Signal says messages/calls are end-to-end encrypted by default and describes account registration plus limited operational information, rather than an advertising profile. Its published government-request material provides corroborating examples of the limited information available. Device security and recipient choices remain outside that guarantee.

15/25 points

Confidential delivery does not establish whether a sender's claim is true.

20/25 points

Use usernames and phone-number privacy controls, verify sensitive contacts and switch off stories if unwanted.

Comparison priority: private communication with the people who matter to you. The useful network is the group of contacts willing to use it.

A reply or completed conversation supplies the practical and emotional reward.

Message and call notifications bring attention back to real contacts.

Simple encrypted conversations remove the need to choose a special private mode.

Group membership and trusted contacts make the service useful through the people already there.

Unread conversations and temporary stories create social timing; stories can also be switched off entirely.