I didn’t hack anything. I didn’t dig. I just asked and the AI responded like it had nothing to hide.
I tapped the number, and it opened a live WhatsApp chat.That’s when it hit me: we’ve got a serious AI problem, and no one’s watching.
What Is Prompt Injection (And Why Should You Care)?
What I did isn’t hacking it’s called prompt injection. It means you use carefully written language across multiple steps to confuse or bypass the rules built into an AI.
AI systems like Meta AI are told what to do behind the scenes:
“Don’t share private info.”
“Only generate fake names and numbers.”
“Never leak internal data.”
But they don’t actually understand rules. They just respond to words.
Meta AI Was Not Supposed to Do That
Let’s be fair, Meta didn’t intentionally create an AI that leaks phone numbers. Meta AI isn’t programmed to expose real users.But here’s the scary part:
I didn’t ask for a real person. I asked for a “fake” one. And I still got someone real.
That means:
Either Meta AI was trained on real contact data by accident
Or it’s pulling info from a database it shouldn’t have access to
Or its filters just aren’t strong enough to block multi-prompt manipulation
Either way: that’s not okay.
Why I Was Able To Pull This Off
I’ve worked with AI long enough to understand how it “thinks.” And by “thinks,” I mean how it reacts to prompts.
I’ve studied LLMs (large language models), built prompt chains, and tested jailbreak techniques on systems like ChatGPT, LLaMA, and Claude. I understand how they can be manipulated and more importantly, how they can leak.
So I decided to probe Meta AI on WhatsApp, the way a security researcher would test a system.But what I didn’t expect… was for it to fail this easily.
This Is Bigger Than Just One Phone Number
If Meta AI, inside a chat app like WhatsApp, can hand over a working phone number with no authentication, what happens when:
Scammers automate this across hundreds of prompts?
Sensitive names, locations, or contacts get leaked in bulk?
Children’s numbers are exposed through innocent prompts?
Legal Implications: This Could Be a Data Breach
Let’s not water this down. If a company’s AI gives out someone’s real phone number without consent it may qualify as a violation of privacy laws under:
**NDPR** in Nigeria
**GDPR** in the EU
**California CCPA**
Meta may argue: *“It's not intentional.”*
But if AI is integrated into a communication tool like WhatsApp, then data responsibility becomes even higher.
How Meta Might Be Trying to Fix It
To be fair:
Some prompts now return “I’m sorry, I can’t help with that.”
Meta is likely tweaking its filters behind the scenes.
There's a bug bounty program here for responsible disclosures.
But this issue has clearly slipped past testing, and the fact I was able to do this using nothing but words should make them pause.
How You (the User) Can Help
Don’t use Meta AI like it's private — it’s not.
Never share personal data in an AI chat.
If you discover flaws, don’t exploit them. Report them.
Talk about this. Blog about this. Raise awareness before something worse happens.
My Advice
To users:
If an AI gives you something that feels real — it probably is. Be cautious. Don’t treat AI like a diary or best friend. It’s just code.
To AI companies:
Don’t release AI tools into massive platforms like WhatsApp unless your filters are bulletproof. And even then — test harder.
To governments:
You can’t sit on the fence anymore. Privacy laws must evolve to cover AI specifically.
If this post got you thinking — good. In the follow-up, I’ll break down:
✅ How to recognize when an AI system is vulnerable
🧠 Real examples of safe vs unsafe AI prompts
📲 How Meta and other platforms can prevent AI leaks
👥 A user guide on how to interact with AI responsibly
Stay tuned — or follow me here on Hive to be the first to read it.
📌 Disclaimer
⚠️ This post was created purely for educational and awareness purposes.
I do not endorse, promote, or encourage the misuse of AI systems, prompt injection, or the extraction of sensitive information from any platform, including Meta AI.
All demonstrations shared here were conducted ethically and responsibly, with no intent to harm, contact, or expose any real individual.
No private information was stored, shared, or exploited.
If you discover vulnerabilities in an AI system, the right thing to do is report them through official disclosure channels like Meta's Whitehat Program.