Our core focus at WhatsApp is providing three billion users all over the world with the ability to communicate privately. As our app evolves to also support business messaging, Channels and Meta AI, we’re answering some common questions about how these features work and how we continue to build on years of work protecting your privacy.
No, we can’t see your personal messages, whether they are one-on-one or group chats with friends, family, classmates or other people. We protect these messages with end-to-end encryption using the Signal protocol, which secures your messages before they leave your device. This means that no one outside of the chat, not even WhatsApp or Meta, can read, listen to, or share them. You can learn more about how end-to-end encryption works here.
There are some differences when it comes to business messaging and Meta AI, which we’ll explain below.
Given the nature of how businesses operate, we make a distinction in WhatsApp between personal messages and those with businesses. Instead of messaging from a mobile phone, businesses often have more complex operations that allow for multiple people and AI customer support to respond to customer inquiries. They also need a place to store and respond to messages.
Many businesses choose Meta as their cloud storage provider. For this reason, we do not consider these messages to be end-to-end encrypted.
We’ve built these solutions because people want to communicate with businesses on WhatsApp and it’s a faster and more private alternative to email or phone calls.
Please remember when you communicate with a business, it can use the information you give it for its own marketing purposes, which, for example, might include advertising on Meta. When a business is using Meta services, we show you a blue system message inside the chat so you can learn more.
We cannot see the content of personal messages because they’re end-to-end encrypted. In addition, we do not keep logs of who everyone is messaging or calling. We think keeping individual records for three billion users would be bad for privacy and we don’t do it.
We do have the ability to understand how our features are being used so we can continue to improve them, and we aim to remove personal details when we do this. We’ve built technology that removes personal details that can be tied to a specific person or phone number as explained here.
We also work to detect spam or abuse through advanced automated systems and reports. For example, a user sending 1,000 messages a minute is probably an automated spam account and we’ll want to ban them from using WhatsApp. In cases of abuse like this, we have the ability to see who is messaging who once a problem is identified.
Because we have this ability, we sometimes receive legal orders to provide this information. We are transparent about how we respond to valid law enforcement requests and you can learn more here.
We can’t see the messages sent in groups with friends and family because they are end-to-end encrypted as well.
We do know what phone numbers belong to what group so that we can deliver messages to the right place. We also know the name, description, and profile picture of the group if there is one. We use this information to ban groups we think are engaging in abusive activity, such as sharing child sexual abuse material. You can learn more here.
We rely on your IP address and phone number to estimate your general (not precise) location, like country or city, to enable features like payments, or to comply with local laws and regulations.
In addition, you have the ability to share your actual precise location with others in a chat. This feature relies on your actual GPS location and it is protected by end-to-end encryption, so that neither WhatsApp nor Meta can see it.
With end-to-end encryption, no one can see your personal messages, including WhatsApp and Meta. We rely on Meta technology to support people around the world with fast and reliable services, however access to WhatsApp personal data is restricted so it cannot be used by other Meta apps – this includes for ads – unless it’s for one of three specific purposes: 1) to determine how many people we’re serving, and we do this because we’re a public company and need to report this information; 2) to help keep people safe, which we think is important; and 3) to provide you with optional features, like payments, Meta AI or Accounts Center that works across Meta products. You can learn more here.
If you want, you can add your WhatsApp account to an Accounts Center with an existing Facebook or Instagram account. This is an optional feature that enables connected experiences across apps. By linking your accounts, you can easily share your Status created on WhatsApp to Stories on Facebook or Instagram, and you can further personalize Meta AI with the information you’ve shared with those apps. Other Meta apps will receive information about you to enable these experiences. But again, your personal messages and calls remain end-to-end encrypted and off limits for ads.
People are really excited to experiment with and explore the possibilities of Meta AI, and WhatsApp is one of the most popular ways people are engaging with AI globally. Using Meta AI is completely optional on WhatsApp. You have to take action to start the conversation by opening a chat or sending a message to the AI. If you choose to chat with Meta AI, directly or in your groups, then Meta receives what you or others send it. Again, your personal messages are end-to-end encrypted and are not seen by Meta AI.
You can use WhatsApp without ever engaging with Meta AI, so it knows nothing. But once you start messaging Meta AI, then it learns what you send it, similar to what you might message a person or business. You should only send to Meta AI what you’re comfortable with it remembering. Meta AI is only ‘on’ when you choose to message it, and only you or a group participant can initiate this, not Meta or WhatsApp. We’ve built lots of privacy controls for those who send messages to Meta AI. You can learn more here.
In addition, we’re pioneering how people can use the capabilities of AI in a privacy-preserving way to deliver helpful summaries of their messages and other AI tools without WhatsApp or Meta being able to read them.
If you only use WhatsApp to message friends and family, then you won’t see any ads. If you use the Updates tab, we will show you Promoted Channels as well as businesses you can message that are placing Ads in Status. In this case, the information used to show ads relies on limited information like your country or city, language, the channels you’re following, and how you interact with any ads you see. If you choose to link your WhatsApp account to Facebook and Instagram, we also use information from there. Your personal messages are entirely off limits from anything having to do with ads. You can learn more here.
No we are not. Your personal messages, calls and Statuses are end-to-end encrypted. Neither WhatsApp nor Meta can see or hear them, and we’re not using them to show you ads.
Yes, it is core to our mission to protect people’s right to private conversations. We have stood up to governments that have sought to force backdoors into our systems or to weaken privacy through other bad ideas like “client-side scanning” and “traceability.”
In addition, our teams have successfully identified and repelled attacks on our systems and users, and we seek to hold attackers accountable. WhatsApp was the first organization to successfully hold a commercial spyware company liable under U.S. law for trying to spy on people’s mobile devices. This was an important action to seek justice and to protect against future attacks, whether against us or other technology companies.
We will continue to stand up for your privacy.
