In a recent post on X, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has written that Meta AI is now being allowed to read chats on WhatsApp.

“IMP If you are part of WhatsApp group. Today onwards WhatsApp is allowing ai to read chats!!!! So enable this setting to block it,” Sharma wrote.

Here is Fortune India’s deep dive on whether that actually is the case, and how has Meta responded to the statement.

Can WhatsApp really read your messages? Can Meta AI access your messages?

These are some of the hotly debated questions today despite the millions WhatsApp has been spending over the last few years on advertising - from billboards to newspapers and videos - that the chats on its social messaging app are completely encrypted and inaccessible to the makers of the app as well.

Referring to the blogpost, WhatsApp has revealed that “WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption keeps your personal messages and calls between you and the person you’re communicating with. No one outside of the chat, not even WhatsApp, can read, listen to, or share them.”

All your personal, business as well as group chats are end-to-end encrypted, meaning no one has access to the files or texts you send over these.

“That’s because the encryption and decryption of messages sent and received on WhatsApp occurs entirely on your device,” WhatsApp writes.

The only information that the app collects is the one that users provide themselves including their phone number, profile name, profile picture, “about” details, contacts, groups or communities joined, the settings, and any information shared with customer support. The platform also gathers technical details about how you use the service, how well it functions, and information about your device, internet connection, and general location. Additionally, WhatsApp may receive information about you from others, for example if someone uploads your number from their address book or reports your account for suspected violations of terms, policies, or the law.

However, there are two caveats to this one the fact that how WhatsApp engages with Meta Company Products and with Meta AI coming into the picture and two if WhatsApp was not sharing any data, why do they introduce more of such features?

WhatsApp says that the app relies on Meta’s infrastructure for fast and reliable services, but personal data is restricted from use by other Meta apps, including for ads, except for limited purposes like service measurement, safety, or optional cross-app features. Optional features, including MetaAI, are explained in-app for user choice.

If WhatsApp is added to Accounts Centre, which is increasingly becoming the case, certain information may be shared across Meta products. WhatsApp uses collected data to operate, improve, customise, support, and market its services, including customer support, transactions, research, troubleshooting, and feature development.

For India, WhatsApp has had a separate privacy notice since July 31, 2025. This states that the app processes certain categories of information with Meta company products. This includes Account/profile details: phone number, name, photo, “about” info, settings; Contacts/connections: address book, groups, communities, broadcast lists; App usage/activity: interactions, usage patterns, reports; Device/technical details: device info, connection, general location; Communications with WhatsApp: customer support, feedback; Information from others: reports, shared details; and Payments/transactions (if applicable): account details, activity.

Most of these details are purely technical and every application has been taking up this data of individuals in today’s times.

However, with MetaAI, the application works such that whenever MetaAI is mentioned in a chat the conversation data is processed by MetaAI. The data consumption ends immediately after the assistant has responded to the conversation.

Why then did WhatsApp introduce Advanced Chat Privacy feature?

This is not a new feature that WhatsApp has launched just today. The feature was already live from April 23 this year. This is part of the many features that WhatsApp continues to rollout to give more access to users, to build ‘multiple layers of privacy’ including disappearing messages and chat lock. This feature enabled users to not have MetaAI optional feature at all available to the chat.

A major use case for this feature is to prevent users from exporting chats that can then be sold or be used to exploit users.

“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,” WhatsApp wrote in its blog.

This feature works best for groups where not everyone is a user contact but the conversation remains sensitive in nature.

For now, the company has rolled out only the first version of the feature, with much more protections to follow soon. This new setting is being rolled out to everyone on the latest version of WhatsApp. And that might have been the case for Sharma who may have had the latest version of the app only now and noticed the feature only today.

Meta’s response on Sharma’s statement

Speaking to Fortune India, a WhatsApp spokesperson assured that MetaAI does not inherently read out the messages in group or personal chats.

“Your personal messages on WhatsApp are always protected by end-to-end encryption so that only you and the people you chat with can read or share them. Meta AI on WhatsApp is completely optional and, if you choose to message or invoke Meta AI in your chats, it can only read what you share with it,” they added.

While Sharma’s recent post does urge people to be more cautious about their online activity, the issue may not be as serious as it is made out to be.