Protect user data and comply with privacy rules
Data privacy and security are essential when using WhatsApp for business communication. Businesses operating in regulated industries, such as finance, healthcare, and government, often have strict data residency and compliance requirements.
To support these needs, Meta provides enhanced storage controls to help businesses manage where and how their message data is stored.
Local storage for data at rest
Meta's Local storage feature allows businesses to control where their message data is stored after processing, ensuring compliance with strict data protection rules to meet the needs of regulated industries. Local storage helps businesses store sensitive data within specific regions or countries, supporting compliance with legal and corporate policies for data at rest.
The local storage feature applies to the following:
- Text messages: Message body content
- Media messages: Audio, images, documents, and videos
- Template messages: Text or media within the message
Local storage is supported by both Cloud API and MM Lite API. The setting is applied at the WhatsApp business phone number level and applies to any messages sent using either API, if enabled. For MM Lite API, local storage is available in the same countries as local storage for marketing on the Cloud API.
Data-in-use Time-to-Live (TTL)
To prevent sensitive data from persisting in temporary environments like caches or in-memory queries, WhatsApp enforces a Time-to-Live (TTL) for data in use.
- When using local storage for Cloud API, the data-in-use period is up to 60 minutes.
- When using local storage for MM Lite API, the data-in-use period is up to 90 minutes.
After the TTL expires, message content is deleted from the Meta data centers outside the selected local storage region and persisted only in data center within that region.
Availability of local storage
Local storage is available in the following regions and countries:
- Australia
- Bahrain
- Brazil
- Canada
- European Union
- India
- Indonesia
- Japan
- Singapore
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Switzerland
- UAE
- United Kingdom
Once the local storage is enabled for a business phone number, Cloud API uses local storage in the selected country instead of its default storage in the United States. To learn more or activate the local storage feature, contact Support (opens in a new tab).