A few weeks after users began noticing that the familiar blue circle for Meta AI was appearing in the messaging app WhatsApp, a new feature is rolling out to keep chats from being used for training by the company's AI features.
Meta said in a blog post published Wednesday that its Advanced Chat Privacy is a toggle setting that opts user chats out of AI features and also keeps chats from being downloadable or from making media used in chats auto-downloadable to devices. The blog post does not specifically mention Meta AI.
The blog post reads in part:
This new setting available in both chats and groups helps prevent others from taking content outside of WhatsApp for when you may want extra privacy.
When the setting is on, you can block others from exporting chats, auto-downloading media to their phone, and using messages for AI features. That way everyone in the chat has greater confidence that no one can take what is being said outside the chat.
Meta posted information about its new Advanced Chat Privacy feature on its WhatsApp blog. It allows, among other things, users to opt chats and group conversations from AI features.
MetaIn the post, Meta said the feature is available in the latest version of WhatsApp. As of Thursday however, updating to the latest version did not make the feature available to CNET. Selecting the name of a chat or group conversation should bring up the feature's toggle option alongside "Disappearing messages," "Lock chat" and "Encryption."
A spokesperson for WhatsApp said in an email to CNET that the change is rolling out gradually over the next few months to users.
WhatsApp and Meta AI
The Meta AI logo and the feature's inclusion in WhatsApp has met with some backlash. Meta has said that Meta AI in WhatsApp is "entirely optional," although it can't be removed from the app's main screen or separated from WhatsApp itself.
In an email to CNET, a company spokesperson said that Meta AI isn't turned on unless users interact with it.
"Always remember not to message Meta AI with information you don't want it to know," the spokesperson said. "You can still use Meta AI on other parts of WhatsApp even if Advanced Chat Privacy is turned on within a chat or group."
Communicating with MetaAI in WhatsApp doesn't link account information with other platforms Meta owns, such as Facebook and Instagram. And the introduction of the AI features doesn't change that messages are end-to-end encrypted, allowing only the sender and recipient to read or listen to messages, the spokesperson said.
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