OpenAI announced on Tuesday that users can now lock ChatGPT conversations to keep sensitive chats private when others may have access to their screens or devices. Users can use a four-digit PIN code to protect locked chats, or they can also use Face ID or Touch ID on supported devices.

Different from the “Temporary Chat” ( Temporary Chats ) in the application, which provides an independent conversation that does not appear in the chat history, users can return to the “Locked Chat” ( Locked Chats ) at any time.

OpenAI indicates that this feature is suitable for such scenarios: users may be discussing personal matters or planning a surprise, and they wish to keep those conversations private even when handing over their device to friends or family members to show them another segment of the chat.

As this application is increasingly used in personal conversations, the addition of "locked chats" provides an extra layer of privacy protection for ChatGPT. Of course, while locked chats can limit access, they do not address concerns regarding how sensitive information is stored or processed.

OpenAI points out that locking a chat does not create end-to-end encryption, nor does it establish a separate encrypted vault; it does not change the retention period of the chat; it does not delete information that ChatGPT has already remembered before the chat is locked; nor does it alter the settings for 'improving the model for everyone' ( Improve the model for everyone ).

Once a user locks a particular conversation, that conversation is moved to a dedicated "Locked Conversations" section and is stored separately from regular chat records, pinned conversations, and search results.

When Memory is enabled, "Locked Chat" has its own independent memory system, which is shared across different conversations within that partition. New messages sent after the chat is locked can update this portion of the memory, but they will not update the regular Memory memory. This means that new information from a locked chat will not be leaked into ordinary chats.

OpenAI indicates that resetting the PIN code will permanently delete all locked chats, files, and other content that were previously protected by the PIN code.

In addition, the "Locked Chat" option is not applicable to temporary chats, archived chats, group chats, chats created through shared links, chats with scheduled tasks, and chats that contain meeting recordings.

"Locked Chat" will be available to users of the ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu packages. OpenAI notes that this feature is not applicable to the medical version of ChatGPT ( ChatGPT for Healthcare ). This feature was gradually rolled out starting on Tuesday, so it may not yet be available to all users.