01.07.2025
Meredith Whittaker
on Signal, Surveillance and the Future of AI
On Tuesday, July 1st, we welcomed one of the world’s most prominent tech critics to De Dépendance. Meredith Whittaker is President of the Signal Foundation, which develops and maintains Signal — the encrypted, privacy-focussed messaging app used by hundreds of millions across the globe. She also co-founded the AI Now Institute to address the ethical and social implications of artificial intelligence, and has become a leading voice in the argument that AI and surveillance are fundamentally intertwined.
At a time when digital platforms shape nearly every aspect of our lives, tech companies have amassed enormous power—collecting vast amounts of personal data that fuel surveillance systems and influence how we communicate, work, and organize. The rapid rise of AI is built on this same foundation: large-scale data extraction and data-driven profit models. Signal stands as a radical alternative. It’s a non-profit funded by donations, with no ads, no investors, and no data harvesting. In a digital landscape dominated by surveillance capitalism, Signal shows that a privacy-first, non-capitalist approach isn’t just possible—it’s competitive. But can it serve as a blueprint for an entirely new tech ecosystem?
Whittaker joined us for a conversation on encryption, surveillance, AI and the governance models of our current tech infrastructures. Drawing from her work at Signal and beyond, she explored how surveillance is embedded in the infrastructure of modern technology, how AI is being deployed with little oversight, and what it takes to build tools and systems that genuinely serve the public interest. With a clear-eyed view of the power dynamics shaping the digital world, Whittaker invited us to imagine—and build—a better tech future. She was joined in conversation by Evelyn Austin, director of the independent digital rights foundation Bits of Freedom.
This programme was kindly supported by the Creative Industries Fund NL and the municipality of Rotterdam.
Participants
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Meredith Whittaker
Meredith Whittaker is President of the Signal Foundation. Previously, she was Minderoo Research Professor at NYU and Faculty Director of the AI Now Institute, which she co-founded. Whittaker worked at Google for over a decade, where she was one of the core organizers of the 2018 Google Walkout protesting workplace misconduct and gender inequality. She advises governments and organizations worldwide on AI, internet policy, and privacy.
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Evelyn Austin
Evelyn Austin is director of Bits of Freedom, a European digital rights organisation based in Amsterdam. For over two decades Bits of Freedom has worked to shape the internet in support of an open and just society. Focusing on the rights to privacy and freedom of communication, Bits of Freedom currently operates within four overlapping programs: young adults and technology, security, civic space, and bodily integrity.
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Nuria Ribas Costa
Nuria Ribas Costa is a Spanish Journalist and Jurist based between Rotterdam and Ibiza, her homeland. Formerly at OMA, she currently works as an independent researcher and policy analyst in the fields of urbanism and culture. She is part of urbanism agency Humankind, research group Vigla, the Center for Music Ecosystems and De Dépendance. She is interested in the relationships rural-urban, the politics of space and land and intersectionality in urbanism.