“Other apps have introduced incognito-style modes, but they can still see the questions coming in and the answers going out. Incognito Chat with Meta AI is truly private, meaning no one — not even Meta — can read your conversations.”

Google says it keeps data from temporary chats in Gemini for up to 72 hours. Temporary chats in ChatGPT can be stored for up to 30 days, while incognito chats in Claude are kept for a minimum of 30 days. Anthropic and OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Logs from ChatGPT are central to recent lawsuits over mass shootings in Tumbler Ridge, Canada, and at Florida State University last year, and a lawsuit from the New York Times has included a court order to store conversations “indefinitely.” Google is being similarly sued by the family of a 36-year-old man who Gemini allegedly instructed to carry out a series of “missions” leading up to his death.

Meta’s Incognito Chat is built on the same Private Processing tech launched last year for processing data in WhatsApp and will roll out “over the coming months” in both WhatsApp and the Meta AI app.