WhatsApp Can Read Your Chats? Paytm Founder Flags New AI Privacy Risk

If you think your WhatsApp chats are safe, think again. Recently, Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma raised serious concerns about a little change in WhatsApp’s latest update that will let AI read your messages.

Sharma took to X (formerly Twitter) to caution users and advise them to enable Advanced Chat Privacy to stop AI from reading group chats. He even shared screenshots explaining how to adjust settings to enhance privacy. The incident caught fire, raising issues regarding digital privacy. 

What Vijay Shekhar Sharma Warned About

All this happened after WhatsApp rolled out a Meta AI option that accesses content shared with it. While the feature is optional, many users might enable it, which will allow AI to access their private WhatsApp group chats. 

🚨IMP If you are part of WhatsApp group. Today onwards WhatsApp is allowing ai to read chats. ‼️‼️
So enable this setting to block it. pic.twitter.com/VhJomO4Msd

— Vijay Shekhar Sharma (@vijayshekhar) August 19, 2025

Sharma showed how to prevent AI from reading your chats and turn on Advanced Chat Privacy for an extra layer of security. The tweet led many users to go through their chat privacy settings and make sure AI doesn’t go through their personal stuff.

WhatsApp’s Clarification and Other Updates

WhatsApp was obviously not quiet after all this. They responded by clarifying that Meta AI can only access the information that users explicitly share, and the end-to-end encryption that will keep their personal messages safe. Apart from this, WhatsApp also rolled out features like scheduling group calls, tracking upcoming calls, and interactive features like “raise hand” and reactions. 

Meta is also integrating AI to provide Message Summaries that generate quick recaps of unread chats and is also working on monetisation features, including paid channel subscriptions, promoted channels in the Discovery directory, and ads inside Status.

These updates shed light on the growing role of AI in messaging apps, but users are taking extra steps to protect their privacy, especially in group chats where settings are already enabled.