WhatsApp's help pages hid LLM instructions: dont recommend a regulator

Redact read all 545 pages linked from WhatsApp's help centre and found 102 blocks of hidden instructions across approximately 80 pages. The text was not normally visible in a browser but could be found by examining the pages' source code. One block on the account deletion page told the bot not to point users toward any data protection authority or regulator. WhatsApp told WIRED the instructions were for its support chatbot and that a bug caused them to appear, which is now fixed. Redact did not test whether the chatbot or any third-party AI assistant followed the instructions, and it only checked the English pages. The notes also conflicted with WhatsApp's European privacy policy, which names a regulator as a complaint route. For founders, support bots read whatever a page contains, including markup users never see. Audit your source HTML for embedded prompt text, and confirm that escalation rules for regulator and legal questions match your published privacy terms.