Fairphone vs Signal
Based on our analysis, Signal is the more privacy-respecting choice overall.
BACK →| Category | Fairphone | Signal |
|---|---|---|
| Overall | B- · 68/100 | A · 87/100 |
| What they collect | Mixed (65) | Positive (88) |
| Who they share it with | Mixed (72) | Positive (88) |
| What you can do | Mixed (63) | Mixed (78) |
| What they promise | Mixed (68) | Positive (86) |
Fairphone doesn't sell your data and has a genuinely ethical mission, but it runs retargeting ads, sends your full IP address to Bloomreach for segmentation, keeps contract data for a minimum of seven years, defaults to anonymisation rather than deletion when you ask for your data to be removed, and forum posts older than 60 days can never be fully deleted.
View full analysis →Signal is a nonprofit that genuinely cannot read your messages or listen to your calls — the encryption is architectural, not a promise — but it requires a real phone number to register, is subject to US law, and its privacy policy is conspicuously sparse: it hasn't been substantively updated since 2018 and lacks the specific retention periods, GDPR rights, or DPO contact that more thorough policies provide.
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