Meta launches WhatsApp ‘incognito’ mode to address privacy concerns for AI chats 34%
By KELVIN CHAN0%
5/13/2026, 7:41:08 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 14 faulty reasoning types, including Biased Writer Voice, Hasty Generalization, and Attempt to Sell a Product or Service, with Ambiguity (Equivocation) as the most egregious example at 18.5% saturation with 67 hits. Analysis detected 627 faulty-reasoning hits from 363 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 41.8% and a BS Rank of 34% (11,170 of 16,813 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 66.40% of the article peer group.
LONDON (AP) — Meta Platforms said Wednesday it’s rolling out an “incognito” mode for WhatsApp users to have private conversations with its AI chatbot, a move intended to ease privacy concerns about sensitive information that users share in chats.
The social media company said in a blog post that incognito chat mode provides a way to have private, temporary conversations with Meta AI, its artificial intelligence assistant that’s been available on WhatsApp for a few years.
Messages will be processed in a “secure environment” that even Meta can’t access, won’t be saved by default and will disappear when exiting a session, Meta said.
Generative AI systems have been dogged by privacy concerns 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.
Rival chatbot makers already have some privacy features.
Google’s Gemini chatbot has the option to disable chat history and opt out of allowing one’s data to be used in training its AI models.
ChatGPT has similar controls.
Meta says it’s rolling out incognito chats because users often ask chatbots sensitive questions or include private financial, personal, health or work data in their questions.
“We’re starting ask a lot of meaningful questions about our lives with AI systems, and it doesn’t always feel like you should have to share the information behind those questions with the companies that run those AI systems,” Will Cathcart, Meta’s head of WhatsApp, told reporters.
Incognito chat mode has safety features to prevent the chatbot from answering questions about harmful topics, Cathcart said.
It will “steer the user towards helpful information if it can and then refuse (to answer) and eventually even just stop interacting with the user completely,” Cathcart said.
Users will only be able to type in questions and get text responses; they won’t be able to upload or generate images.
They’ll also have to confirm their age because Meta doesn’t allow users under 13 on its platforms.
KELVIN CHAN
Chan covers technology and innovation in Europe and beyond for The Associated Press.
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