Novel WhatsApp feature adds AI while maintaining data privacy

Mounting data privacy concerns surrounding artificial intelligence service providers have prompted WhatsApp to announce the new Private Processing feature that would safeguard users' messages when the platform's AI features are used, reports The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. "When launched in the coming weeks, Private Processing will allow users to leverage powerful optional AI features like summarizing unread messages or editing help while preserving WhatsApp's core privacy promise," said the Meta-owned service in a security engineering blog. While additional details regarding the use cases for the Meta text-generation tool in WhatsApp remain unclear, Meta will be releasing Private Processing components and include the feature in its bug bounty program upon its launch. Data security and privacy professionals have also been sought by Meta to comment on the feature as the firm emphasized the default implementation of end-to-end encryption in the platform.