OpenAI adds chat blocking by PIN code and biometrics to ChatGPT

You can close a conversation through its menu with three dots. Such dialogs are moved to the "Blocked Chats" subsection of the "Projects" section, where you can immediately create new ones after the first blocking. Access is protected by a four-digit code tied to the OpenAI account; on iPhone, you can add Face ID or Touch ID to it, on Android - device unlock. According to the company's description, the feature is designed for cases where the user shows the screen to others or passes the smartphone to relatives and friends.

OpenAI clarifies that blocking only hides the display: it does not add end-to-end encryption, does not change the data storage period on servers, and does not affect the "Model Improvement for All" setting. Information remembered by ChatGPT before blocking remains in memory, and when "Memory" is enabled for closed chats, a separate common area is created that does not affect the main one. Resetting a forgotten PIN code irreversibly deletes all blocked chats and files, neither support nor the workspace administrator can recover them. To change the code and save the data, you need to enter the current one. In Enterprise and Edu, closed conversations remain visible in the OpenAI Compliance Platform logs, accessible to the organization.

The feature is being released gradually for the Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu tariffs; it is not provided in ChatGPT for Healthcare. Blocking is available in the browser, in applications for iOS and Android, and in the new desktop version for macOS and Windows. It cannot be applied to temporary, archived, and group chats, conversations via a shared link, chats with scheduled tasks or meeting records, as well as to dialogs in Codex.