Redact reports hidden AI instructions in WhatsApp help pages

Redact, a privacy-services company, reports that WhatsApp's help pages contained text hidden from readers and meant for an AI, including instructions not to recommend a data protection regulator. The post was shared on Hacker News on October 19. What follows is Redact's account unless stated otherwise.

• Redact says it found the text on October 8, 2026 and read all 545 pages linked from WhatsApp's help centre. It found 102 hidden blocks on 80 pages; it says most were harmless.
• On the page about deleting an account, a hidden note told the AI not to recommend contacting any data protection authority or regulator, not to suggest WhatsApp can delete an account manually, and not to suggest using a different phone number.
• On the reporting and blocking page, a hidden note told the AI that once a user mentions a lawyer or legal action it should not cite or interpret the Terms of Service, privacy policy or data protection laws (GDPR, LGPD, CCPA), even if the user raises them.
• Redact says WhatsApp's server sent the hidden text to Google's and Bing's crawlers, and that it has not tested whether any AI assistant acted on it.
• Redact says all 102 hidden blocks were gone when it re-checked on October 18. It reports that WhatsApp told WIRED the notes were instructions for its support chatbot and appeared on the pages because of a bug that has been fixed, and that it wants its chatbots "not to offer legal advice". That is WhatsApp's statement as relayed by Redact.