OpenAI updates its ChatGPT macOS app to encrypt locally stored conversations, after a user discovered that the app was storing chats in plain text
Until Friday, OpenAI's recently launched ChatGPT macOS app had a potentially worrying security issue: it wasn't hard to find your chats stored …
The VergeJay Peters
Context & Ripple Effects
The issue emerged days after OpenAI opened the ChatGPT macOS app to all users, turning a desktop convenience feature into a question of how sensitive conversation data is handled on-device.
It also follows OpenAI's earlier ChatGPT history exposure, which led to a temporary shutdown after some users could see others' chat titles during a prior chat-history bug. Together, the incidents make conversation storage and access controls central to trust in the desktop client.
First-order effects
ChatGPT macOS users receive encryption for conversations stored locally, closing the plain-text exposure identified by the user.
OpenAI must treat local conversation storage as a security-sensitive part of the desktop app rather than a background implementation detail.
Second-order effects
The fix raises the baseline users may expect from competing desktop AI clients: local chat caches need protections that match the sensitivity of the prompts they hold.
As the app later gains access to developer tools such as editors and terminals through code-reading integrations, weaknesses in local storage can carry greater practical risk because the assistant may handle more sensitive work context.
Third-order effects
Desktop AI assistants are likely to be judged not only on model capability but on endpoint security, especially as they become persistent work surfaces with access to local context.
If disclosures of storage or access-control gaps recur, enterprise adoption will increasingly depend on auditable controls around local data, permissions, and retention rather than cloud safeguards alone.
The trend: AI assistants are moving from browser chatbots to local work surfaces, making endpoint privacy and data-governance controls a core product requirement.
The OpenAI ChatGPT app on macOS is not sandboxed and stores all the conversations in **plain-text** in a non-protected location: ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.openai.chat/conversations- {uuid}/ So basically any other running app / process / malware can read all your ChatGPT …
OpenAI's ChatGPT Mac app had been storing conversations in plain text, as shown by @pvieito. After I reached out to OpenAI to ask about it, the company updated the app to fix the issue. https://www.theverge.com/...
macOS has blocked access to any user private data since macOS Mojave 10.14 (6 years ago!). Any app accessing private user data (Calendar, Contacts, Mail, Photos, any third-party app sandbox, etc.) now requires explicit user access. …
@pvieito turns out you don't need full disk access, you just need to ask a process that does 🫠 — It would be very easy to smuggle this into some other app — [images]
@pvieito one ‘drag your hard disk here’ permissions prompt you may have quickly clicked through several years ago, that grants an indefinite entitlement to access anything, isn't a whole lot to keep you safe! macOS just isn't secure enough by design
@stroughtonsmith And just to complete my rant: the Messages database is not even accessible via a simple permission prompt, the user has to explicitly grant Full Disk Access for any process to read it: — [image]
@stroughtonsmith I repeat myself here: macOS has blocked access to user private data since macOS Mojave 10.14 (6 years ago!). Any app accessing private user data (Calendar, Contacts, Mail, Photos, the Documents & Desktop folders, any third-party app sandbox, etc.) now requires e…
I understand there's a lot of pearl clutching going on here, but we do know the Messages app also stores your chats and contacts in human-readable text (in a sqlite db), right? And that any app can just go read it? — ...right? — https://mastodon.social/...
@achilldotes @ns123abc For anyone to steal that database you need to give a malicious app full disk access on Mac. At that point, there's more important shit to be stolen than chatGPT conversations 🤷♂️
OpenAI's ChatGPT Mac app had been storing conversations in plain text, as shown by @pvieito. After I reached out to OpenAI to ask about it, the company updated the app to fix the issue. https://www.theverge.com/...
@ns123abc how is this a security flaw? many apps running on your desktop store their data unencrypted on your machine when you use chatgpt in your browser, your messages are stored right there in your browser in plain text
@verge why should I be concerned about it storing files in the clear on my own personal filesystem? I feel like I'd be more worried about large encrypted blobs that I couldn't access myself? And macOS has file restrictions—every app can't magically look at every file?
@ns123abc Every messaging app including iMessage stores it in plain text JSON / other structured format within local storage. Fear mongering at its finest