> The Open Technology Fund (OTF) is an American nonprofit corporation[5] that aims to support global Internet freedom technologies. Its mission is to "support open technologies and communities that increase free expression, circumvent censorship, and obstruct repressive surveillance as a way to promote human rights and open societies. As of November 2019, the Open Technology Fund became an independent nonprofit corporation and a grantee of the U.S. Agency for Global Media.[5] Until its formation as an independent entity, it had operated as a program of Radio Free Asia.[5]
> ... The OTF funds third-party audits for all the code-related projects it supports.[13] It has also offered to fund audits of "non-OTF supported projects that are in use by individuals and organizations under threat of censorship/surveillance".[13] Notable projects whose audits the OTF has sponsored include Cryptocat,[14] Commotion Wireless,[15] TextSecure,[15] GlobaLeaks,[15] MediaWiki,[16] OpenPGP.js,[17] Nitrokey,[18] Ricochet[19] and Signal.[20] The OTF also matched donations to the auditing of TrueCrypt.[21] In 2014, the OTF reported that it had funded more than 30 technology code audits over the past three years, identifying 185 privacy and security vulnerabilities in both OTF and non-OTF-funded projects.
What ownership share, promise of future payment, board seats, or other rights to control Signal was assigned to the Open Technology Fund by receiving that grant?
Signal should not have been taking money from the CIA.
...
> Why not?
In fairness, at least one answer is obvious: because it created the appearance, for some, that the CIA was getting something out of the deal, undermining trust in the platform.
They are. A secure messaging platform being widely used gives their human assets cover.