OpenAI recently released a dedicated app for the Mac, allowing Mac users to use ChatGPT natively on their devices. With native support for the app, the entire experience can be much faster than before, but there are several privacy concerns in the app that recently came to light. A developer discovered that ChatGPT was storing its conversation with users in simple, plain text format, allowing anyone to read it with the help of a simple app.
ChatGPT app for Mac revealed full conversations in plain text, contributing to privacy risks
Apple recently unveiled its AI features that will be part of the iOS 18 release later this year, and a lot of attention has been paid to privacy and security. Apple dedicated a portion of the event to talk about user privacy in Apple Intelligence and how the company aims to tackle it going forward. While ChatGPT is part of Apple Intelligence in one way or another, a developer managed to discover that the information between the user and the app was stored in plain text.
Pedro José Pereira Vieito told Jay Peters from The Verge that “he was curious about why OpenAI opted out of using the app sandbox protections and ended up checking where they stored the app data.” This allowed him to create a very simple app called “ChatGPTStealer” to show how easy it is to steal chats in a text window from outside of the ChatGPT app for Mac.
All he had to do was change the name of the file on his computer, and he was able to see the conversation between ChatGPT and the user in plain text. The developer showcased a simple method through which conversations can be retrieved, thereby imposing a privacy risk. This could be the reason why OpenAI decided to make the ChatGPT app available for the Mac through its website rather than the App Store, as it allowed the company to avoid Apple’s guidelines related to sandboxing.
With the issue at hand, any operation or app running in the background could gain access to the conversation between ChatGPT and the user. However, after The Verge contacted OpenAI about the privacy issue, the company released an update that encrypts chats. OpenAI told Taya Christianson, “We are aware of this issue and have shipped a new version of the application that encrypts these conversations.” After the update, the chats between ChatGPT and the end user are no longer visible.
Source: A Developer Easily Retrieved Conversations With ChatGPT On Mac Hidden Behind Plain Text,
