OpenAI's New ChatGPT Feature Logs Your Keystrokes and Stores Them in Plain Text
OpenAI (openai on 164news.com) has launched Computer History, a ChatGPT feature that records clicks, keystrokes, keyboard shortcuts, and app switches on macOS to build a searchable memory. The memory files are stored locally as unencrypted plain text, and the feature is not available in the EEA, Switzerland, or the UK.
How It Works
Computer History logs these interactions through the operating system’s accessibility framework and converts them into a searchable memory that ChatGPT can access. However, it does not capture screenshots, screen recordings, microphone input, or system audio, and private browsing is excluded.
Consent and Controls
The feature requires layered consent: administrator approval for Business and Enterprise workspaces, individual user agreement, and Memory activation. Users have control over which apps and websites are included or excluded from logging, and they can pause recording via the menu bar.
Data Retention and Training
Temporary event files are stored on the machine for 48 hours before deletion. OpenAI processes them on its servers without retaining them afterward unless legally required. While the memory files aren’t used to train models directly, subsequent chats that reference these memories may still contribute to training data depending on user settings.
Risks and Limitations
The company acknowledges heightened risks of prompt injection, recommends against using the feature with communication apps without mutual consent, and discourages logging data handling health, financial, or personal data. Europeans cannot use this feature due to its unavailability in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.