Scam protection should not cost people their private chats.
WhatsGuard is designed to warn about risky WhatsApp messages while keeping message content under the user’s control: local processing, no external communication of WhatsApp content or metadata, no local storage of chat messages, protected logs and configuration, and open-source verification.
Local-first scam detection
WhatsGuard is designed to process WhatsApp message content locally on the user’s own computer. The scam check runs on the local machine, using the local GPU where available.
This lets WhatsGuard analyze scam risk signals without sending the message content to an external server. The goal is not to read conversations like a human reviewer. The goal is to detect pressure patterns and give a plain-language warning before someone clicks, replies, sends money, or shares a code.
- ✓Suspicious links: flag risky links before the user clicks.
- ✓Urgent payments: detect pressure to send money quickly.
- ✓OTP requests: warn when someone asks for verification codes.
- ✓Impersonation language: spot new-number family claims, fake banks, and fake officials.
- ✓Secrecy pressure: flag messages that tell users not to ask anyone else.
No external communication of WhatsApp content or metadata
WhatsGuard does not send WhatsApp message content to an external service for routine scanning. It also does not communicate WhatsApp message metadata externally. That matters because metadata can reveal sensitive patterns, such as who someone talks to, when conversations happen, and which relationships are active.
No chat upload
Messages are checked locally instead of being uploaded for routine review.
No metadata sharing
WhatsApp sender, timing, and relationship metadata are not communicated externally.
No chat archive
WhatsGuard does not store chat messages on the user’s local machine.
Trusted contacts, protected logs, and protected configuration
Not every conversation carries the same risk. WhatsGuard supports a trusted contacts model so users can define people they trust, such as close family members, caregivers, colleagues, or known community members.
For trusted contacts, WhatsGuard avoids storing message content in logs. WhatsGuard also protects configuration files and logs because these files can contain sensitive settings, risk events, or operational traces.
- ✓Trusted contact list: users define the contacts they already know and trust.
- ✓No trusted-contact message logging: logs do not store message content from trusted contacts.
- ✓Protected config: configuration files are protected against unnecessary exposure.
- ✓Protected logs: local logs are designed to minimize and protect sensitive operational records.
Open source so anyone can verify
Privacy claims should be inspectable. WhatsGuard is fully open source so developers, privacy reviewers, researchers, community groups, and technically minded users can examine how it works.
Open source makes it possible to verify whether messages are processed locally, whether chat content or metadata is sent externally, how logs behave, how trusted contacts are handled, and how configuration is protected.
- ✓Verify local processing behavior.
- ✓Verify no external WhatsApp message content or metadata communication.
- ✓Verify that chat messages are not stored locally.
- ✓Verify trusted-contact, config, and log protections.
What WhatsGuard does and does not do
Privacy by design is a set of concrete product decisions. WhatsGuard is built to warn at the moment of scam risk while minimizing unnecessary access, storage, and transmission of private chat data.
- ✓Processes WhatsApp message content locally.
- ✓Uses the local GPU where available.
- ✓Gives plain-language scam warnings.
- ✓Protects config files and logs.
- ×Does not store chat messages locally.
- ×Does not send WhatsApp content externally.
- ×Does not send WhatsApp metadata externally.
- ×Does not act as a human chat reviewer.
Help people pause before the scam succeeds, while keeping their chats private.
WhatsGuard is built for real-time scam detection, local processing, no external communication of WhatsApp content or metadata, no local chat-message storage, protected logs and configuration, trusted-contact privacy, and open-source verification.