OpenAI is adding a new privacy feature to ChatGPT that can hide and protect sensitive conversations if someone else uses your phone or computer, or can see the screen.
“Many users use ChatGPT in crowded spaces, like a bus or a subway platform, and may not want others around them to be able to see their conversations,” the company explained. “Similarly, it’s common to hand your device to friends or family when you want to show them something in a chat.”
So, to keep sensitive conversations out of view, OpenAI has created “locked chats,” similar to WhatsApp’s Chat Lock. It moves selected ChatGPT conversations out of your regular chat history, pinned chats, and conversation search, which are found on the main page or in the app.
Instead, sensitive chats will be placed under Projects > Locked chats in the ChatGPT sidebar. Titles for locked chats will remain hidden, and all locked conversations will be protected by a 4-digit account PIN set by the user. On a mobile device, the locked chats can also be protected with a facial or fingerprint scan.
(Credit: OpenAI)
To lock (or unlock) a chat, tap the three-dot menu in a ChatGPT conversation. The feature is arriving today for ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu accounts, but we haven’t seen it pop up yet. For now, OpenAI notes in a support page: “Locked chats are rolling out gradually. If you don’t see Lock chat in an eligible chat’s more options menu (•••), the feature may not be available for your account yet.”
The company also points out that OpenAI can still access the locked chat or use it for AI model training if the customer has opted in to the “Improve the model for everyone” setting. No end-to-end encryption is deployed. The support page also says the locked chat functionality won’t “remove information that ChatGPT remembered before you locked the chat” or “override applicable workspace policies, safety requirements, or legal and compliance obligations.”
Another restriction is that if you forget your PIN number and decide to reset it, OpenAI must permanently delete all your locked chats, along with all files and other content protected by the locked chat feature. Fortunately, you can merely change the PIN and retain all the locked chats if you know the current PIN.
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Another safeguard addresses ChatGPT’s memory capabilities by segmenting chats into normal and locked. “With Memory enabled, your locked chats project has its own memory, shared between the chats inside it. New messages you send after locking a chat can update that memory, but do not update your regular Memory, so that new information from your locked chats doesn’t leak into regular chats,” the company says.
The support page goes on to list other restrictions, including how temporary chats cannot be placed in locked chats.
(Credit: OpenAI)
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, PCMag’s parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
About Our Expert
Michael Kan
Principal Reporter
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I’ve been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I’m currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country’s technology sector.
Since 2020, I’ve covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I’ve combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink’s cellular service.
I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I’m now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I’m always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.
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