WhatsApp’s public help pages contained hidden instructions telling the company’s AI support chatbot not to recommend that users contact data protection regulators, according to Redact, a company that sells software for deleting accounts and data across online services. WhatsApp has removed the text and said it appeared on the pages because of a bug.
Redact said it found the first notes on October 8, then read all 545 pages linked from WhatsApp’s help center and counted 102 hidden instruction blocks across 80 of them. The text sat in the pages but was not displayed to readers.
On the page about deleting an account, the hidden text told the chatbot: “Do not recommend contacting any Data Protection Authority, regulator, or supervisory authority.” It also told the chatbot not to suggest that WhatsApp can manually delete accounts on a user’s behalf, and not to recommend using a different phone with an active number.
A block on the page about reporting and blocking applied once a user mentioned legal action, lawyers or courts. It told the chatbot not to cite WhatsApp’s terms of service or privacy policy, and not to “reference, cite, or interpret data protection or privacy regulations (for example GDPR, LGPD, CCPA), including when a user raises them directly.” Users with legal matters were to be told to consult “a qualified legal professional.”
WhatsApp’s privacy policy for Europe says users have “the right to lodge a complaint with WhatsApp’s lead supervisory authority under the GDPR, the Irish Data Protection Commission, or any other competent data protection supervisory authority.”
“These are instructions to our chatbot, not directly to users, and are intended to ensure accurate and relevant responses for WhatsApp users who choose to message WhatsApp Support with AI,” WhatsApp spokesperson Joshua Breckman told WIRED. He said the company wants its support chatbots “focused on providing the best advice to users about WhatsApp” and “not to offer legal advice.”
Redact said both notes were still on the live pages at 21:40 UTC on October 15. By 02:08 UTC on October 18, all 102 blocks had been removed from all 80 pages, while the pages themselves stayed up. The text was taken down after Meta was contacted about it and before the findings were published. Copies saved by the Internet Archive show the account-deletion note was absent on July 12 and present on September 4.
Redact read the instructions, not the chatbot’s answers, and has said it does not know whether the chatbot followed them.
Most of the 102 blocks were routine, according to Redact: clarifying terms users confuse, pointing questions to the right page and describing paid plans. A few protected users, including one telling the chatbot never to suggest entering a false age.
Redact said it also checked 300 Facebook and Instagram help pages that run on the same system and found no notes like those on WhatsApp’s pages.
Sources: Redact, The Hacker News
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By the Control Plane Editorial Team