ChatGPT Wants to Track Your Clicks and Keystrokes

Late last week, OpenAI introduced an optional Computer History tool to the ChatGPT desktop app for macOS. The tool logs activity from approved apps and websites, like clicks, typed text, and keyboard shortcuts. ChatGPT and Codex can use that information to create a timeline that lets them search and remember what users worked on across different tasks.

OpenAI says Computer History is off by default and requires users to turn it on. (Twitch could learn a thing or two, perhaps.) It reportedly doesn’t record screenshots, screen recordings, audio, or private browsing activity; rather, it captures data from macOS accessibility services, like typing, clicks, and app context. The tool saves event interactions on the Mac and sends them to OpenAI for processing. These temporary event files aren’t used for OpenAI’s model training, and they’re deleted 48 hours later.

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Though the above information may be reassuring, OpenAI warns that using content from websites or documents can pose prompt-injection risks when included in ChatGPT or Codex. The company advises users to exclude banking, health, legal, password-management, and confidential work data from projects involving Computer History, which makes you wonder what exactly the tool is supposed to help you with in the first place.

Nevertheless, if you find a use case for Computer History, it’s available to Pro, Business, and Enterprise users on macOS, with some regional and workspace limits.