The newly launched ChatGPT app for Mac was storing user chats in plain text for anyone to read and exploit.
Your Chats with ChatGPT were Stored in Plain Text on the Mac Until the Latest Update Arrived
The official ChatGPT for Mac was made available to everyone for download just a while back. And as you’d expect, the app was an instant hit, with many users flocking to download the piece of software to get in on the AI action right from their Mac desktop.
However, it was just found out that the app was storing all user chat data in plain text in macOS. Anyone who got hold of your Mac could access these chats, get personal data out of it and potentially exploit it in some way. Thankfully, the latest update to the app fixes this issue and chats are now encrypted.
You can check out the demo posted on Threads by Pedro José Pereira Vieito and see how these chats can be accessed and it’s pretty wild and a massive oversight by OpenAI. But, the worst part is how another app can be programmed to access this data.
I highly recommend downloading the latest update to make sure you and your data remain safe.
Data stored in this manner never leaves a good impression on the developers behind the app or service. There are plenty of users out there that enter their personal data to ChatGPT to get help with certain things, although it is highly recommended that you should not be sharing this data in the first place. But, you can’t stop the population from doing so. A little precaution goes a long way in keeping you safe all the time.
Given how this all happened, and ChatGPT is set to be a part of Apple Intelligence at the end of the year, it remains to be seen if it leaves a sour impression on Apple.
