Whatsapp

The latest edition of my email newsletter about work in Parliament, A Lord’s Eye View, is out and you can also read it in full below. But if you’d like to get future editions emailed direct to you as soon as they are published, sign up now: The use of WhatsApp for decision-making at senior levels of government is in the news again, due to concerns that this means we do not get a proper audit trail of who decided what and when. The government had previously promised to update its guidance on the use of WhatsApp but the promised deadline was missed. So the latest news was a good reason to return to that topic in Parliament. Read on to find out what happened. The government missed its WhatsApp deadline Lord Beamish, chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has been in the news raising concerns about the government’s use of WhatsApp: He said it was “extraordinary to see how much government business appears to be being conducted over unofficial systems”. “Lengthy WhatsApp conversations between senior officials and ministers appear now to be the format by which government policy is formulated.” He said the committee had raised the

Tech giant Meta Platforms ($META) has offered rival AI chatbots, including OpenAI, free access to WhatsApp in Europe for a limited time as it ...

​Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is one of the Best Stocks to Invest in For 5 Years According to Billionaires . On May 13, Reuters reported that Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is launching a new Incognito Chat feature on WhatsApp for conversations with the company’s AI assistant. ​The report highlighted that this new feature is aimed at addressing the concerns regarding data privacy. Management noted that the incognito chat feature will ensure that the conversations with the Meta AI assistant remain hidden from everyone, including the company itself. These messages will not be saved and will automatically disappear. ​Reuters also highlighted that the initiative responds to a widespread concern that people routinely share personal, financial, health, and work-related information with AI assistants. Head of WhatsApp, Will Cathcart, emphasized that users should not have to expose the personal context behind their questions to the companies operating these AI systems. ​Moreover, initially, the Incognito Chat supports text only, with no option to upload images. The chat also features built-in guardrails, which handle inappropriate queries intelligently. The company also plans to roll out additional Side Chat features in the coming months, which will allow users to get help while chatting with other users. ​Meta

Updated 18 May 2026 at 18:31 IST Chilling WhatsApp chats of former Miss Pune Twisha Sharma reveal extreme emotional distress and alleged harassment before she was found hanged in Bhopal. Twisha Sharma WhatsApp Chats Reveal Distress Before Death | Image: Republic Heartbreaking WhatsApp conversations between digital content creator and former Miss Pune, Twisha Sharma, and her mother have surfaced, shedding light on the severe emotional turmoil she experienced just days before her tragic demise. The text messages, initially accessed by Republic, layout the sheer helplessness of the 31-year-old. Caught in a web of isolation, Twisha was allegedly subjected to relentless mental harassment by her husband and in-laws only months after her wedding. Suspicious Demise and Family Allegations Twisha Sharma, originally a resident of Noida, was found hanging at her matrimonial home in the Katara Hills locality of Bhopal on the night of May 12. She had tied the knot with Bhopal-based attorney Samarth Singh in December 2025, barely five months before the incident. While the official autopsy report pointed to hanging as the definitive cause of death, her grieving family points to visible injury marks across her body. They allege foul play, asserting that she was murdered rather than dying

The Department of State Services (DSS) in Enugu State has invited Ifoma Rosemary Nwaogaranya, a former student of Ezzy International College of Nursing Sciences, for questioning. This is coming nearly seven weeks after Ifeyinwa Okwudu, the administrator of the college, verbally terminated her studentship. FIJ earlier detailed the events that led to the informal termination of studentship in a report in April. READ MORE: Ezzy Nursing College Administrator ‘Expelled’ Student Verbally. She Had No Justification Good Enough to Print It seems the school is not stopping at sending her away, it is also getting security establishments involved. Sunday Obodoeze, who introduced himself as Charles and an Assistant Director of Operations for DSS in Enugu, phoned Nwaogaranya on Friday, bringing to her attention a petition by the school authorities. “This’ (sic) Charles from DSS Enugu. You can come on Tuesday (19/5/26) because we have a conference on the same day, please. By 3 pm, please,” Obodoeze wrote in a text invite following the phone call with Nwaogaranya. Sunday Obodoeze’s text message. The intelligence officer also extended the same invitation to Francis Nwapa, the national secretary of the advocacy group Youth Rights Campaign (YRC). The YRC has been involved in Nwaogaranya’s case, mobilising

How can you reduce spam calls on WhatsApp? short by Ankush Verma / 10:08 am on Sunday, 17 May, 2026 To reduce spam calls on WhatsApp a person should go to 'Settings' in the WhatsApp application and then click on 'Privacy'. They should then select 'Calls' and turn on the 'Silence Unknown Callers' option. This automatically silences incoming voice and video calls from numbers a person has never interacted with or saved in their contacts.

Silhouettes of laptop and mobile device users are seen next to a screen projection of Whatsapp. — Reuters/File Meta-owned WhatsApp is testing a new privacy-focused feature that allows messages to disappear after being read, offering users greater control over their conversations. The feature, currently available to select beta testers, is being rolled out on both Android and iOS platforms. According to WABetaInfo, the feature is designed to enhance disappearing messages by introducing a new "After reading" timer. This tool will allow users to set messages to automatically delete after the recipient opens and reads them, rather than relying solely on fixed time-based expiry options. Previously, WhatsApp users could choose disappearing message timers such as 24 hours, seven days, or 90 days. Despite being useful, these options sometimes created limitations, particularly when messages expired before being read. — WABetaInfo The new system will address the issue by ensuring messages to remain visible until the recipient actually views them. Once a message is read, a countdown begins based on the sender's selected duration, which can be set to five minutes, one hour, or 12 hours. After this period expires, the message is automatically removed from the chat. If the recipient does not

Updated May 16, 2026 at 1:38am Getty PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - MARCH 31: Kyle Schwarber #12 of the Philadelphia Phillies celebrates after hitting a solo home run in the third inning against the Washington Nationals at Citizens Bank Park on March 31, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images) On Friday night, the Philadelphia Phillies opened up a series with the Pirates in Pittsburgh. The Phillies won by a score of 11-9. Kyle Schwarber continued his hot streak, finishing with three hits, two home runs and five RBI’s. GettyKyle Schwarber #12 of the Philadelphia Phillies hits a two-run home run during the fifth inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park on May 15, 2026 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Here’s what people were saying about Schwarber on social media: @RobBballHistory: “Kyle Schwarber hit his 359th and 360th career HR, passing Carlos Lee, Nolan Arenado and Hall of Famers Yogi Berra and Johnny Mize and moved into a tie with Gary Gaetti for 92nd on the All Time HR list.” Bob Nightengale: “Kyle Schwarber becomes the 8th player in MLB history to hit 20 HRs in the first 45 games: Cy Williams Mickey Mantle Ken Griffey Jr Barry Bonds Mark McGwire

I recently came across a WhatsApp status from someone we’re in the same group with, even though we’ve never interacted. It confused me because I thought we had both saved each other’s numbers. Turns out that’s not how it works. You do not need to have each other’s contacts saved to see a status in some cases. WhatsApp, the Meta-owned platform, has admitted it is running a small test that lets users share their status updates with all the people they’ve saved in their phone’s contacts, even when those contacts that have not saved the user back. Users concerned about privacy loss noticed the feature and raised questions with the messaging platform on X. “We’re running a small test where people can share their status with people they’ve saved in their contacts, including those who haven’t saved them yet,” WhatsApp responded to concerned users. . Visibility for status updates has always relied on the intersection of both parties’ address books. This test broadens sharing to all contacts a user has saved, even when those contacts haven’t added the user themselves. WhatsApp says the experiment is limited in scope while it assesses user response and any potential privacy implications. You need

Meta Platforms said on Wednesday it's rolling out an "incognito" mode for WhatsApp users to have private conversations with its AI chatbot, a move intended to ease privacy concerns about sensitive information that users share in chats. The social media company said in a blog post that incognito chat mode provides a way to have private, temporary conversations with Meta AI, its artificial intelligence assistant that's been available on WhatsApp for a few years. Messages will be processed in a "secure environment" that even Meta can't access, won't be saved by default, and will disappear when exiting a session, Meta said. Generative AI systems have been dogged by privacy concerns because the large- language models that underpin these systems are trained on vast troves of data, sometimes including personal information provided by users themselves in their conversations with AI chatbots. Rival chatbot makers already have some privacy features. Google's Gemini chatbot has the option to disable chat history and opt out of allowing one's data to be used in training its AI models. ChatGPT has similar controls. Meta says it's rolling out incognito chats because users often ask chatbots sensitive questions or include private financial, personal, health or work data