Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma raises concerns over WhatsApp reading chats, Meta denies claims

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A warning from Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has sparked fresh concerns among WhatsApp users about their privacy. In a post on X, Sharma claimed that WhatsApp has started allowing artificial intelligence to read chats, and urged users to enable a particular setting to block it. His message quickly caught attention, raising questions about just how private our WhatsApp conversations really are.

Sharma wrote, “IMP If you are part of WhatsApp group. Today onwards WhatsApp is allowing AI to read chats. So enable this setting to.” His words struck a chord, especially since WhatsApp is one of the most widely used apps in India.

But WhatsApp has come forward to clarify the situation. A spokesperson for the company stressed that personal messages remain protected by end-to-end encryption, which means that only the sender and receiver can read them. According to the company, Meta AI — the artificial intelligence tool now being added to WhatsApp — is optional. It only reads content that users directly share with it, either by messaging the AI or invoking it in chats.

Tech tracker WABetaInfo also pointed out that Sharma’s warning was “not accurate.” It explained that the AI does not scan all chats. Instead, only messages where Meta AI is mentioned are processed by it. Users can even check whether Meta AI has accessed a particular message by opening the Message Info screen inside WhatsApp.

WhatsApp has also introduced Advanced Chat Privacy, a feature users can switch on if they want an extra layer of control. By turning it on, some AI features might not work, but users can be reassured that their messages are not shared with Meta AI unless they choose to interact with it.

Meanwhile, Meta has been promoting its AI assistant as a way to make WhatsApp more useful. With Meta AI, users can ask questions, draft messages, generate images, or even plan events, all without leaving the app. The idea is to make conversations smarter and more productive, but the debate shows that privacy concerns remain at the top of people’s minds.

For now, if you are worried, enabling Advanced Chat Privacy is a simple step you can take. It ensures that your chats stay as private as you want them to be, while still giving you the choice to use Meta AI when you need it.