Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in May 2026 that the company is rolling out Incognito Chat for Meta AI, describing it as “the first major AI product where there is no log of your conversations stored on servers.”
Unlike incognito or temporary chat modes offered by competitors, Meta says its version applies end-to-end encryption to conversations — meaning neither messages nor responses are visible to the company itself. “Other apps have introduced incognito-style modes, but they can still see the questions coming in and the answers going out,” Zuckerberg said. “Incognito Chat with Meta AI is truly private, meaning no one — not even Meta — can read your conversations.”
By comparison, Google retains data from temporary Gemini chats for up to 72 hours, while ChatGPT and Claude store incognito or temporary conversations for a minimum of 30 days each. Anthropic and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The feature is built on Private Processing, the same technology Meta launched for handling data within WhatsApp. Incognito Chat is set to roll out “over the coming months” across both WhatsApp and the Meta AI app.
The announcement comes as AI chat logs face increasing legal scrutiny. Logs from ChatGPT are central to lawsuits related to mass shootings in Tumbler Ridge, Canada, and at Florida State University, and a separate lawsuit from the New York Times has resulted in a court order requiring conversations to be stored indefinitely. Google is also facing a lawsuit from the family of a 36-year-old man who allegedly received instructions from Gemini that preceded his death.
Meta’s privacy claim may carry added weight in this legal climate, as end-to-end encryption would prevent the company from producing conversation logs even if compelled to do so.
Source: The Verge