How to Keep Your Meta AI Prompts and Data Private on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook

With the presence of a plethora of social media apps, we have so many options to communicate with our loved ones. Meta, formerly Facebook, is in line with Google and has been a part of several privacy-related lawsuits for exposing and collecting user data without their consent. Recently, Malwarebytes, the popular antivirus software, found out that Meta AI conversations are being exposed publicly, often without the user being aware. Meta AI is a popular generative AI platform that has over 1 billion active users. It is available across all Meta platforms, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger.

This is a serious concern, as someone’s private data is being exposed and is readily available across the internet. While Meta is tightening its security and making a move towards this, fortunately, in this guide, we will explain to you how you can safeguard yourself from such privacy invasion by the Meta AI app and keep your Meta AI prompts and data private on the platform. Let’s get right into it.

What is the privacy issue with the Meta AI app?

Meta AI is similar to ChatGPT. It is a generative AI app that can generate text, help write, compose, or answer users’ questions, and everything in between. However, Meta AI also offers you the option to share the question that you have asked using the “Share” button. The next screen shows you a preview of the post, from which users can decide which app they want to share it with. Notably, as soon as the conversation or information between a user and Meta AI is shared, anyone can find it under the app’s “Discover Feed.”

This is quite inappropriate, as the user might have shared some private conversations, and instead of being shared with the chosen app, it is publicly available on the Meta AI app. Malwarebytes has shared an example of an email thread that shares a story of being unfairly terminated from a job. Here’s the Meta AI apps’ response:

Hello {name}, it’s great to hear from you again. I can sense the emotional weight of revisiting this experience, and I appreciate your trust in sharing it with me. It sounds like a really tough situation, and I’m here to listen and support you as you process it. No rush, take your time to gather your thoughts, and we can continue the conversation whenever you’re ready. How’s the preparation for the arbitration going so far?

The worst part is not that the person sharing the information has lost the job, but how easily his or her story is available publicly to anyone. Popular tech website TechCrunch also highlighted that people are using Meta AI for tips on tax evasion and other private matters. Some of the worst AI images generated using Meta AI that are available publicly include President Donald Trump eating poop along with women kissing drenched in mud.

When top tech publication, WIRED, reached out to Meta, their spokesperson claimed that users’ chats on Meta AI require going through a multi-step process to be shared on the Discover feed. However, on the mishaps of Meta AI sharing public data online, he claimed that it could be an unintentional step taken from the user’s side.

How can you keep your Meta AI prompts and data private?

While AI apps can be helpful in so many ways, it is always better to keep an eye on them, and if you find something sketchy (such as Meta AI’s privacy disaster), then you must take some precautionary steps. For Meta AI, here’s how you can protect your Meta AI prompts and data from getting exposed publicly.

Don’t use Meta AI

The best thing you can do to maintain your privacy is to avoid using Meta AI. You have already shared a lot of your personal information with Meta by using its suite of social media apps. Not using another one of its apps will keep any more of your data safe and private.

Change Meta AI settings

If you want to use Meta AI, then there are still a few tweaks that you can do to keep your prompts and data private.

1. Launch the Meta AI app.
2. Tap on your profile photo in the Meta AI app at the top-right corner.
3. Go to Data & Privacy under App settings.
4. Select Manage your information.
5. Tap on Make all your prompts visible to only you.
6. Choose Apply to all.
7. For extra safety, tap on Delete all prompts.
8. Go back to the Data & Privacy page.
9. Tap on Suggesting your prompts on other apps.
10. Toggle off other Meta apps.

You should avoid using the Share button or any other medium to share your prompts on other platforms.

WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram

Since conversations with Meta AI on WhatsApp aren’t end-to-end encrypted, the same can be said with Facebook and Instagram. Here’s what you can do to safeguard and protect your data:

3.1 WhatsApp

WhatsApp has removed the option to stop Meta AI’s data collection. It is done by default. So, the best you can do to protect your data and privacy is to stop using Meta AI within the app.

3.2 Facebook

1. Launch the Facebook app.
2. Tap on your Profile image.
3. Navigate to Settings & Privacy > Privacy Center.
4. Choose Generative AI at Meta under Privacy topics.
5. Scroll down and under More resources, tap on How Meta uses information for generative AI models.
6. Expand Privacy and generative AI.
7. Scroll down, tap on Learn more and submit requests here.
8. Tick the checkbox next to I have a concern about my personal information… and enter your details.
9. Select Send.

3.3. Instagram

1. Launch the Instagram app.
2. Go to your profile page, tap on the hamburger menu icon on the top-right
3. Tap on Privacy Center.
4. Choose Generative AI at Meta under Privacy topics.
5. Scroll down and under More resources, tap on How Meta uses information for generative AI models.
6. Expand Privacy and generative AI.
7. Scroll down, tap on Learn more and submit requests here.
8. Tick the checkbox next to I have a concern about my personal information… and enter your details.
9. Select Send.

Delete AI conversations from Meta AI

Thankfully, there are a few commands that you can use to delete all of your prompts from Meta AI, including information or images that you have shared with the platform.

• Use /reset-ai in a conversation on Messenger, Instagram, or WhatsApp, to delete your AI messages.
• Use /reset-all-ais to reset all AIs on the app.

AI: A boon or a threat?

It should be noted that while AI has made its way into everybody’s life, everyone is using it in some way or another. While it can help you do so many things, it is always important to note that it is being controlled by an organization that has a fat book of privacy policy, which neither of us cares to read. They take advantage of this and use every small amount of data that you feed into their platform for their gain. Stay safe and use AI without compromising your privacy.