OpenAI adds chat lock to protect private ChatGPT conversations - CHOSUNBIZ

On October 20, OpenAI announced a new feature called "chat lock" that lets users hide private conversations in ChatGPT.

OpenAI said, "The chat lock feature prevents sensitive conversations from being visible when sharing your ChatGPT screen with others or using a shared device." More people are using ChatGPT to talk about personal matters and private concerns, so OpenAI appears to be adding stronger privacy protections.

When you lock a conversation, it disappears from your regular chat history, pinned lists, and search results. It is moved to a section called "Locked chats." If the memory feature is turned on, locked chats use a separate memory shared only among those locked chats. New information entered after a conversation is locked will not be added to the memory used by regular chats.

To open a locked conversation, you must unlock it using a personal identification number (PIN) with four digits, or use face or fingerprint recognition on a mobile device. Unlike temporary chats, which do not stay in chat history, locked chats can be opened again at any time.

However, locking a conversation only limits other people's access when they share your ChatGPT screen. It does not change how the conversation's information is stored or processed. OpenAI said locked chats do not have end-to-end encryption or their own separate encrypted storage space. The rules for how long OpenAI keeps conversations and how they are used to train models also stay the same. Information ChatGPT remembered before the conversation was locked is not deleted.

OpenAI also stressed that if you reset the PIN for your ChatGPT account, all locked chats will be permanently deleted. OpenAI's customer support team cannot restore deleted conversations.

The chat lock feature will begin rolling out in stages on October 21 to users on ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu plans.