WhatsApp hid instructions on help pages telling its AI support chatbot not to recommend privacy regulators

Hidden instructions were at one point written into the code of WhatsApp help pages, telling its AI support chatbot not to suggest that users who cannot delete their accounts contact data protection regulators; the text had been removed from the relevant pages by October 18. Redact, the data deletion software company that found the text, said it checked 545 pages linked from the WhatsApp help center and found 102 hidden text blocks on 80 pages, most of them routine content such as clarifying easily confused terms; one hidden text block on the report and block page instructed that after a user mentions a lawyer, lawsuit or court, the bot must not cite privacy regulations such as the GDPR. WhatsApp told WIRED that these were instructions for the support chatbot that appeared on the pages because of a bug and have now been fixed; Redact said it did not test whether the bot actually followed them. WhatsApp's European privacy policy states that users have the right to complain to regulators such as the Irish Data Protection Commission.