Meta Launches Incognito Chat for Private AI Conversations
The new WhatsApp and Meta AI feature uses Private Processing to keep AI chats temporary, encrypted and inaccessible to Meta.
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- Meta Launches Incognito Chat for Private AI Conversations
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Meta has introduced Incognito Chat with Meta AI, a privacy-focused feature for WhatsApp and the Meta AI app, as users increasingly turn to AI assistants for sensitive questions involving health, finance, work and personal decisions.
The feature is built on WhatsApp’s Private Processing technology, which Meta says allows AI requests to be processed in a secure environment that even Meta and WhatsApp cannot access.
Conversations are temporary, not stored, and disappear by default when the session ends.
Meta said other AI apps offer incognito-style modes, but can still see user prompts and responses. It claimed Incognito Chat is designed so “no one can read your conversation, not even us.”
The feature is rolling out on WhatsApp and the Meta AI app over the coming months.
The launch reflects a broader privacy problem in consumer AI: users often ask chatbots questions they would hesitate to share with search engines, employers, friends or family.
Reuters reported that Meta is positioning the feature as a response to rising concern over sensitive AI interactions, including financial, health and personal information.
Incognito Chat is text-only for now, with image uploads disabled, according to AP.
The feature also includes safety measures intended to prevent the AI from responding to harmful queries.
Meta also plans to introduce Side Chat with Meta AI on WhatsApp. The feature will allow users to privately ask Meta AI for help inside an existing WhatsApp conversation, using the context of that chat without interrupting the main exchange, the company said.
The privacy claims come at a sensitive time for Meta in India.
WhatsApp and Meta are under scrutiny in the Supreme Court over data-sharing practices linked to WhatsApp’s privacy policy.
In February, India’s top court had warned it could reimpose a ban on WhatsApp sharing user data with other Meta entities, after an appeals court lifted part of a Competition Commission of India restriction while keeping a monetary penalty in place.
