ChatGPT can now lock sensitive chats behind a PIN, which works more like a curtain than a safe
By Brett Gavaghan, Founder of Adaptd ·
OpenAI has started rolling out Locked Chats, which hides chosen ChatGPT conversations behind a PIN or Face ID. It keeps them off a shared screen, but it doesn't add encryption.
The short version
- ChatGPT Locked Chats moves chosen conversations into a separate section that opens with a four-digit PIN, Face ID or Touch ID.
- It started rolling out on 20 October to every ChatGPT plan from Free up to Enterprise and Edu, except ChatGPT for Healthcare.
- Use it for privacy on shared screens, and keep treating anything truly sensitive as something that doesn't belong in a chat.
Everyone has a chat they'd rather nobody saw over their shoulder: the pay review, the awkward email draft, the question you probably should have known the answer to. ChatGPT now has a lock for those.
What are ChatGPT Locked Chats?
ChatGPT Locked Chats is a new feature that hides chosen conversations behind a four-digit PIN, or Face ID or Touch ID on supported devices. Locked chats move to their own section, out of your regular history and search, and unlike Temporary Chats you can go back to them any time.
If Memory is on, locked chats get a separate memory of their own. New details from a locked chat don't carry into your regular conversations.
Who can use it, and what doesn't it do?
Locked Chats is rolling out from 20 October to Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu users, so it may take a while to reach you. It isn't on ChatGPT for Healthcare, and OpenAI hasn't announced any regional limits.
Locking a chat doesn't add any extra encryption, change how long chats are kept, remove anything ChatGPT remembered before you locked it, or change the setting that lets OpenAI use your chats to improve its models. Temporary and group chats, among a few others, can't be locked. And if you reset your PIN, everything behind the old one is deleted for good.
Should your business use it?
Your business should use Locked Chats for privacy on screens other people can see, like a shared office computer or a laptop plugged into the meeting room TV. That's the job it's built for.
My take: it's a curtain, not a safe. Client files, staff matters and anything covered by a confidentiality agreement still need the same rules as before, including whether they go into ChatGPT at all. Write your PIN somewhere sensible, too.
Forgetting your password is annoying. Forgetting this PIN is a clean-out.
Wondering what this means for your business?
That's exactly what the discovery call is for.