ChatGPT's macOS app tracks clicks and keystrokes
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- ChatGPT's macOS desktop app launched "Computer History," a feature that turns user clicks and keystrokes into training data and can suggest automations or pick up half-finished tasks.
- The feature builds an activity timeline that both ChatGPT and Codex can reference when users make a request, creating cross-session continuity.
- Unlike Microsoft's Windows Recall, Computer History captures only "events" — no images, video, or audio — and is opt-in, with controls to exclude specific apps and websites and to delete entries.
- OpenAI Product and Engineering manager Ari Weinstein said on X that Computer History will automatically ignore content in incognito or private browser tabs.
- OpenAI Developer Experiences team member Dominik Kundel demoed the app pulling up his last edited document, checking whether it was shared via Slack, and recapping how he spent his morning.
Why it matters: OpenAI is collecting detailed activity logs — clicks, keystrokes, app usage — into training data with stated opt-in controls and per-app exclusions. The source directly compares the feature to Microsoft's controversial Windows Recall, noting OpenAI skips screenshots in favor of event data. Users gain session continuity but hand a granular workday record to an AI system that the source itself calls "still kind of creepy."
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