ChatGPT Adds PIN-Locked Private Chats — SkimNews
Get the Tech newsletter
Daily tech — startups, AI labs, chips, the launches that shape the next decade. Free.
- OpenAI announced Tuesday that ChatGPT users can now lock individual conversations behind a four-digit PIN, or with Face ID or Touch ID on supported devices.
- Locked Chats live in a dedicated section separated from regular chat history, pinned conversations, and chat search, and can be reopened any time — distinguishing them from Temporary Chats.
- OpenAI explicitly warned that locking a chat does not create end-to-end encryption, does not change how long the chat is retained, does not remove information ChatGPT had already remembered before locking, and does not change the "Improve the model for everyone" setting.
- Locked Chats carries its own separate Memory that does not bleed into regular Memory, so new information added after a chat is locked won't carry into the user's standard ChatGPT experience.
- Resetting a PIN permanently deletes all chats, files, and other content protected by the previous PIN.
- The feature is unavailable for temporary, archived, group, shared-link, scheduled-task, and meeting-recording chats, and is excluded from ChatGPT for Healthcare, but is rolling out to Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu plans.
Why it matters: Privacy-sensitive users handing their phone to someone else get a screen-share deterrent, not a vault — OpenAI itself notes locked chats still flow through its servers with the same retention and "Improve model" settings, and the feature excludes healthcare plans entirely.
Ask SkimNews
