Meta AI cannot access WhatsApp groups, individual chats, or contact details; the viral claim is fake
A social media post (here, here) claims that all WhatsApp group admins should enable the Advanced Chat Privacy feature in their groups. The post warns that WhatsApp group chats may be vulnerable to AI-related cybersecurity risks if this setting is not enabled. It further claims that, without activating this feature, AI agents (likely to be Meta AI) could legally access messages and contact details of group members and individuals. Let’s verify the claim made in the post in this article.
Claim: AI agents (likely to be Meta AI) can access WhatsApp group and individual chats and contact details unless the Advanced Chat Privacy feature is enabled.
Fact: Meta AI on WhatsApp only accesses messages explicitly shared with it or those mentioning @Meta AI. It cannot access entire group chats or contact details of members. All personal and group messages remain protected with end-to-end encryption. The Advanced Chat Privacy feature restricts the use of Meta AI by preventing others from using your messages with AI features, exporting chats, or auto-downloading media, but it does not control Meta AI’s access to chats or contacts, which are already protected. Any data scraping risks arise from malicious browser extensions, not from Meta AI or this feature. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
The Meta AI feature, launched in April 2025, is an optional service on WhatsApp that uses generative AI technology developed by Meta. It allows users to chat with Meta AI directly or within existing group chats, ask questions, get helpful suggestions, explore shared interests, create AI-generated images, and forward messages for more information. Responses are generated based on the prompts and messages users send. Feature availability may vary by region. When users choose to use Meta AI, Meta receives the prompts, shared messages, and feedback to provide relevant and personalised responses.
On the official WhatsApp Help Center page under the section “How to chat with Meta AI in an individual or group chat,” we found that messages from Meta AI are generated using artificial intelligence based on the prompts and messages users send directly to it. Meta can only access messages that mention @Meta AI or are intentionally shared with it, and not any other content. It cannot access the entire group chat or the contact details of group members. Personal messages and calls on WhatsApp remain protected with end-to-end encryption, meaning no one outside the chat, not even WhatsApp or Meta, can read, listen to, or share them.
We also found that the Advanced Chat Privacy feature is a new setting available for both individual and group chats, designed to offer extra privacy by limiting how content can be taken outside of WhatsApp. When this feature is enabled, it prevents others from exporting chats, auto-downloading media to their devices, and using messages with AI features.
It is important to note that if a user has a malicious or overly permissive browser extension installed, their WhatsApp Web data can potentially be scraped when it is opened. This risk, however, is not related to the Meta AI feature or the Advanced Chat Privacy feature.
To sum up, Meta AI cannot access WhatsApp groups, individual chats, or contact details; the viral claim is fake.