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 workshere.
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 canlearn 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 explainedhere.
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 morehere.
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 canlearn more here.
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 canlearn more here.
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 canlearn more here.
In addition, we’re pioneering how people can use the capabilities of AI in aprivacy-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 morehere.