META’S latest chat privacy moves appear to pull in opposite directions: WhatsApp’s new Incognito Chat, built on a Private Processing baseline, promises chats that are “truly private” and not readable by Meta, while Instagram has removed end‑to‑end encryption for DMs, effectively making conversations readable by Meta and potentially others. According to BBC News, these AI chats are currently text‑only and run in a sandboxed environment, separate from users’ regular end‑to‑end encrypted messaging.
Meta is also trialling “Side Chat” to invoke Meta AI inside other WhatsApp chats without breaking underlying encryption, a shift the piece frames as a marketing and technical balancing act. The article argues that the result for users is a split reality: stronger privacy for AI chats on WhatsApp, but weaker privacy on Instagram DMs. It emphasises that incognito and private are marketing terms, whereas end‑to‑end encryption remains the technical guarantee users should rely on. For those concerned about sensitive conversations, the guidance is to consider where messages are held and to review privacy settings accordingly.