OpenAI app for macOS updates in response to non-encrypted chats fiasco

According to the data engineer Pedro José Pereira Vieito, the use of ChatGPT's app for macOS is a risky venture - or has been up until recently, that is.

Vieito took to Meta's Threads to present findings that, while conversations held in the app have been stored locally on user devices, they have also been saved in plain text. Moreover, the location of those logs are very accessible to "any other running app, process or malware" - not to mention suitably knowledgeable humans that get their hands on a user's machine. 

9to5Mac has asserted that it was possible to verify Vieito's claims with a Mac on an older version of OpenAI's app, which is believed not to comply with Apple's app sandboxing policy, regarded as capable of maximizing user security by imposing far more permissions on app data access.

Then again, OpenAI has reportedly released an updated version of ChatGPT for macOS with improved encryption - albeit still without sandboxing at the time of writing.

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