{"id":666954,"date":"2026-05-13T15:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T15:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/666954\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T15:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T15:47:09","slug":"meta-launches-whatsapp-incognito-mode-to-address-privacy-concerns-for-ai-chats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/666954\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta launches WhatsApp ‘incognito’ mode to address privacy concerns for AI chats"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON (AP) \u2014 Meta Platforms said Wednesday it\u2019s rolling out an \u201cincognito\u201d mode for WhatsApp users to have private conversations with its AI chatbot, a move intended to ease privacy concerns<\/a> about sensitive information that users share in chats. <\/p>\n

The social media company<\/a> said in a blog post that incognito chat mode provides a way to have private, temporary conversations with Meta AI, its artificial intelligence assistant<\/a> that\u2019s been available on WhatsApp for a few years.<\/p>\n

Messages will be processed in a \u201csecure environment\u201d that even Meta can\u2019t access, won\u2019t be saved by default and will disappear when exiting a session, Meta said. <\/p>\n

Generative AI systems have been dogged by privacy concerns<\/a> because the large language models that underpin these systems are trained on vast troves of data, sometimes including personal information provided by users themselves in their conversations with AI chatbots. <\/p>\n

Rival chatbot makers already have some privacy features. Google\u2019s Gemini chatbot has the option to disable chat history and opt out of allowing one\u2019s data to be used in training its AI models. ChatGPT has similar controls. <\/p>\n

Meta says it\u2019s rolling out incognito chats because users often ask chatbots sensitive questions or include private financial, personal, health or work data in their questions. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re starting ask a lot of meaningful questions about our lives with AI systems, and it doesn\u2019t always feel like you should have to share the information behind those questions with the companies that run those AI systems,\u201d Will Cathcart, Meta\u2019s head of WhatsApp, told reporters. <\/p>\n

Incognito chat mode has safety features to prevent the chatbot from answering questions about harmful topics, Cathcart said. <\/p>\n

It will \u201csteer the user towards helpful information if it can and then refuse (to answer) and eventually even just stop interacting with the user completely,\u201d Cathcart said. <\/p>\n

Users will only be able to type in questions and get text responses; they won\u2019t be able to upload or generate images. They\u2019ll also have to confirm their age because Meta doesn\u2019t allow users under 13 on its platforms. <\/p>\n

Kelvin Chan, The Associated Press<\/p>\n

\t\tKeep it Factual<\/p>\n

Add CityNews Kitchener as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.<\/p>\n

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