'We need to be very careful, particularly with official assertions that cast aspersions on apps like Signal which set the gold standard for security and privacy in the industry.' 'What I see here could very well be a collapse of language, but nonetheless there are very high stakes to that collapse of language,' Whittaker told FRANCE 24. Signal and WhatsApp are both widely used by French government officials. The memo, first reported by Tech 24's French counterpart Guillaume Grallet in Le Point magazine, does not mention Signal and WhatsApp by name, but said 'the main public instant messaging applications' were 'not devoid of security flaws'.