With robust end-to-end encryption capabilities and specific data protection measures, Meta ensures that WhatsApp's AI does not have access to the content of private messages.
In this article, we will explain how Meta AI operates on WhatsApp, its limitations chinese overseas asia database regarding data collection, and how the security of user data is ensured.
How does Meta's AI use data on WhatsApp?
Meta AI arrived in Brazil in October 2023 with the proposal to offer a new form of intelligent interaction in Meta applications, including WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram.
Meta AI is based on the Llama 3.2 language model, developed by Meta to provide accurate and reliable responses to user questions and commands.
This model uses a large dataset of trillions of words from web pages, books, scientific articles, and open source repositories, enabling the AI to learn language patterns and provide relevant information in a similar way to other AI chatbots.
However, WhatsApp’s AI has clear limitations when it comes to accessing user data on the messaging app. Meta AI can only read messages sent directly to it, i.e. when a user mentions “@Meta AI” or initiates a specific conversation with the AI.
Common conversations between users, including the exchange of daily messages, remain inaccessible to artificial intelligence, which helps ensure the privacy and confidentiality of personal data.
Thus, the information sent to the AI on WhatsApp is limited to commands and questions directly addressed to it, without interfering in personal conversations.
Privacy in WhatsApp conversations: How encryption protects the user
An important issue that guarantees user privacy on WhatsApp is end-to-end encryption, implemented by Meta since 2016.
This security feature is essential to ensure that only the sender and recipient of a message can read the content, keeping the message exchange protected from unauthorized access, including WhatsApp's own servers and, of course, Meta AI.
When WhatsApp is installed, it automatically generates a unique cryptographic key pair for the user's device: a public key and a private key.
The public key is shared with the user's contacts, while the private key remains stored on the device. When sending a message, the content is encrypted with the recipient's public key and can only be decrypted by the recipient's private key.
This ensures that your content remains unreadable to other people or systems, even while in transit between WhatsApp servers.
In practical terms, this cryptographic structure means that any information that travels through WhatsApp conversations is inaccessible to WhatsApp's artificial intelligence or any other Meta system.
Meta AI does not have the authority to decrypt messages and therefore cannot read or store information from private conversations between users.