OpenAI’s official ChatGPT app for macOS seems to be posing a threat to users. Reportedly, the app stores all conversations in plain text, which can expose sensitive user data.
OpenAI recently launched an official ChatGPT app for macOS, which is also the first ChatGPT app for any desktop platform. While having an app makes the process of talking to the chatbot more seamless, some users have raised privacy concerns.
Is ChatGPT secretly storing your data?
OpenAI recently launched ChatGPT macOS, which is rumored to have a potentially worrying security issue. “It wasn’t hard to find your chats stored on your computer and read them in plain text,” Pedro Vieito, who is a developer, explained in a post on Threads.
He further explained that, this meant that if a bad actor or malicious app had access to your machine, they could easily read your conversations with ChatGPT. This would mean they can also access sensitive data contained within them. Additionally, Pedro Vieito also explained in a post on Threads, that the official ChatGPT app for Mac doesn’t use the standard macOS sandbox system.
But what is ‘sandboxing ‘and how is it related to the safety of your data? The term ‘sandboxing’ can be defined as a security control system that essentially runs an app and all its data in an isolated environment. This way, the app can’t access other parts of the system without permission. Vieito claimed that by looking at the preference and cache files stored by the app, he identified that all conversations registered in the app are kept saved in plain text. Eventually, this means that it would be making it easy for anyone to access this data.
What threat lies ahead?
So, how does the absence of sandboxing affect your data safety?Here’s how your data can be stolen.
- Anyone can find the conversations from the ChatGPT app by going to Library > Application Support > com.openai.chat.
- Since the conversations are stored outside a sandbox and in plain text, conversations can be accessed by other apps, processes, or even malware running on the Mac, all without the user’s concern..
How can you protect your data?
But if you’re concerned about privacy,to keep your data safe on macOS you should only download apps from the Mac App Store or check whether an app downloaded from an external source runs in sandbox.
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Deepak Sen is a tech enthusiast who covers the latest technological innovations, from AI to consumer gadgets. His articles provide readers with a glimpse into the ever-evolving world of technology.
