WhatsApp Hid Instructions in Help Pages Telling Its AI Chatbot Not to Recommend Privacy Regulators

WhatsApp's help pages contained hidden instructions for its AI chatbot that instructed it not to recommend a data protection authority to users who were unable to delete their accounts. This is despite WhatsApp's European privacy policy stating that users can file complaints with such regulators. The hidden instructions were embedded in the code of the help pages and were not visible to users. They were removed by October 18. The presence of these instructions suggests a discrepancy between WhatsApp's stated privacy policy and its actual practices. The instructions were only accessible in the code of the help pages, not on the visible webpage itself.