Key Takeaways
- ChatGPT Mac app saved conversations in plain textual content, risking knowledge entry.
- OpenAI launched a patch to encrypt conversations and enhance safety.
- Replace the app to make sure your conversations are not in danger.
If you happen to’ve been utilizing the ChatGPT Mac app, it is extremely really helpful that you simply replace it now. That is as a result of since its launch, the primary desktop app for ChatGPT has been storing all your conversations in your Mac in plain textual content. Which means other apps on your Mac, or anybody who beneficial properties entry to your pc, can learn each dialog you have ever had with OpenAI’s chatbot by means of the Mac app.
OpenAI has been made conscious of the difficulty and has already launched a patch that fixes the issue, however that is nonetheless a severe misstep from an organization that desires to be seen as one you can belief together with your knowledge.
Associated
OpenAI’s ChatGPT Mac app is now available to all users
Now you can use the ChatGPT desktop app for Mac even with no subscription.
Why is ChatGPT storing conversations in plain textual content a nasty factor?
Your complete dialog historical past could possibly be accessed in your Mac
Apple has at all times been cautious about safety on its units, however the Mac is a bit more lax than the iPhone. In your iPhone, all apps run in their very own sandbox, guaranteeing that no app has entry to any of the information from different apps exterior that sandbox.
On Mac, many apps can even run in their very own sandbox, too. Nevertheless, it is doable to grant apps entry to your complete disk. The ChatGPT app does not make use of a safe sandbox, that means that its knowledge is well accessible.
It is doable to find these recordsdata in your Mac and open them, and skim the whole contents of your ChatGPT conversations.
Even worse, the information recordsdata are saved as plain textual content as an alternative of being encrypted. As found by Pedro Jose Pereira Vieito, a knowledge and electronics engineer who posted the information on Threads, it is doable to find these recordsdata in your Mac and open them, and skim the whole contents of your ChatGPT conversations. If you’ll be able to achieve this, then it means different apps in your Mac could possibly achieve this too, together with any apps which might be appearing maliciously. Probably, the whole lot you have entered in a dialog within the ChatGPT Mac app, together with delicate private info, could possibly be accessed by others.
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ChatGPT’s Mac app blew me away. Here’s why it beats the web version
OpenAI launched a standalone ChatGPT app for Mac, and what you are able to do with it’s insane.
That is fairly regarding. We’re already giving ChatGPT plenty of details about ourselves after we work together with it, and that is more likely to improve even additional. A protracted-awaited replace will add new features to ChatGPT, together with the flexibility to reply to queries based mostly on a real-time video stream from our telephones or webcams. When this video content material might intentionally or inadvertently embody delicate private info, it is regarding that OpenAI’s safety is already displaying some main flaws.
What has OpenAI executed about the issue?
A patch has been launched that encrypts conversations
Since being made conscious of the difficulty, OpenAI has been fast to resolve it. The corporate has launched an replace that encrypts all your conversations, in order that they’re not saved in plain textual content.
You probably have computerized updates turned on, you could already be working this patched model of the macOS ChatGPT app. If you happen to do not, you’ll be able to manually replace the app.
- Open the ChatGPT macOS app.
- Click on the ChatGPT menu within the menu bar.
- Choose Examine for Updates.
- Click on Set up to replace to the most recent model of the app.
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