Signal has no data to sell, no advertisers to sell it to, and no shareholders to benefit from such a sale. We’re building a different kind of tech – where your data stays in your hands – but we’re also building a different kind of tech organization. One without investors, quarterly earnings calls, or share price considerations. While the model for conventional tech companies incentivizes them to build products for your data rather than for you, Signal’s nonprofit structure is designed so that the only way value can accrue is in the experience of using the app; the only place it can accrue is in the hands of the people who use it.
This also means that as the sole beneficiaries of Signal, it is up to the people using Signal to sustain it. This is a different model from the way most people experience tech on the internet – which is generally sustained by user data for the benefit of the largest shareholders – but we believe that changing this paradigm is necessary for a future where technology ultimately serves us all better.
In the latest Signal release, we’re making it easier to participate in this new model for a new kind of tech.