Signal Foundation—Signal developed and open-sourced the Signal Protocol, enabling end-to-end encryption across billions of devices
Signal Foundation created the Signal Protocol (formerly TextSecure Protocol), which became the gold standard for encrypted messaging. The protocol was adopted by WhatsApp (2B+ users), Facebook Messenger, Skype, and Google Messages. Signal open-sourced the protocol and its client applications.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Encryption & Privacy | +toward | primary | +1.00 |
| Open Source | +toward | primary | +1.00 |
| User Privacy | +toward | secondary | +0.50 |
| Overall incident score = | +0.953 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (critical ×2) × confidence (0.57)
Evidence (1 signal)
Confirms product_decision Apr 5, 2016 documented
Signal announced WhatsApp completed integration of Signal Protocol for all users
Signal blogged about WhatsApp completing the rollout of the Signal Protocol to all WhatsApp users, making it the largest deployment of end-to-end encryption in history. The open-source protocol was freely available for adoption by other messaging platforms.