Mark Zuckerberg announces ‘completely private’ encrypted Meta AI chat
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Incognito Chat for Meta AI, claiming it is the first major AI product with no server-side conversation logs, featuring end-to-end encryption for true privacy. This contrasts with other AI chatbots that retain chat data for varying periods. The feature will roll out in WhatsApp and Meta AI app over the coming months.
Article intelligence
Key points
- Meta's Incognito Chat uses end-to-end encryption and stores no conversation logs on servers.
- Unlike other AI incognito modes, even Meta cannot read messages.
- Competitors like Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic retain chat data for 72 hours to 30 days.
- The feature is based on Meta's Private Processing tech and will be available in WhatsApp and Meta AI.
Why it matters
This matters because meta's Incognito Chat uses end-to-end encryption and stores no conversation logs on servers.
Technical impact
May affect model selection, inference cost, product capability, and evaluation benchmarks.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says its new Incognito Chat is “the first major AI product where there is no log of your conversations stored on servers.” Messages in Incognito Chat aren’t saved or stored in users’ chat history, similar to incognito modes on other AI chatbots, but Meta says its version is different because it also uses end-to-end encryption, which Meta recently removed from Instagram DMs: “Other apps have introduced incognito-style modes, but they can still see the questions coming in and the answers going out. Incognito Chat with Meta AI is truly private, meaning no one — not even Meta — can read your conversations.” [Media: https://www.threads.com/@zuck/post/DYSAIlEFFRh] Google says it keeps data from temporary chats in Gemini for up to 72 hours. Temporary chats in ChatGPT can be stored for up to 30 days, while incognito chats in Claude are kept for a minimum of 30 days. Anthropic and OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Logs from ChatGPT are central to recent lawsuits over mass shootings in Tumbler Ridge, Canada, and at Florida State University last year, and a lawsuit from the New York Times has included a court order to store conversations “indefinitely.” Google is being similarly sued by the family of a 36-year-old man who Gemini allegedly instructed to carry out a series of “missions” leading up to his death. Meta’s Incognito Chat is built on the same Private Processing tech launched last year for processing data in WhatsApp and will roll out “over the coming months” in both WhatsApp and the Meta AI app.