Locked AI Chat Folders
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OpenAI added a feature that lets people lock individual ChatGPT conversations. This helps keep private chats safe when someone else uses the same device. Users can protect these chats with a four-digit PIN or with Face ID or Touch ID on supported devices.
Locked Chats appear in a separate area, away from the regular chat list, pinned conversations, and search results. Users can open them again later. When Memory is turned on, the locked area has its own shared memory. This means new details stay in that area instead of being added to regular chats.
People use ChatGPT for both personal plans and work. Keeping chats separate makes it easier to let someone else use the app without showing them everything in the account. Making this feature available across ChatGPT's plan levels brings these privacy controls to more users, including those who do not pay. However, the feature does not use end-to-end encryption, so it controls who can open chats rather than fully protecting the messages themselves.
Image Credit: Shuttertock/Primakov
What's Driving This Trend
- Private AI Workspaces
- Separate, locked spaces for AI conversations could help people keep personal, work-related, and shared-device chats private in different ways.
- Biometric Chat Security
- Face ID, Touch ID, and PINs offer ways to protect private AI conversations while keeping the app easy to use for everyday tasks.
- Segmented AI Memory
- Keeping memory separate in locked chats points to a future where AI systems may handle different parts of a person's life separately and reduce the chance of information crossing between them when it should not.
Who This Affects Most
- Artificial Intelligence
- AI platforms for everyday users can stand out by designing privacy features that give people more control over their sensitive chat histories.
- Cybersecurity
- Tools that control access to AI apps create more demand for simple privacy protections that offer more than basic account login security but do not provide full encryption.
- Productivity Software
- Work and planning apps may become more useful by offering private AI spaces that make it safer to share devices or work together while handling different kinds of tasks.