ChatGPT Locks Sensitive Chats Behind PIN

A useful privacy layer, but not a secure vault—OpenAI explicitly says Locked Chats do not provide end-to-end encryption or change retention.

• –Locked conversations live under Projects > Locked chats and disappear from regular history and search.
• –The feature is rolling out across Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu plans.
• –Forgetting the PIN has a severe failure mode: resetting it permanently deletes locked chats and protected files.
• –Enterprise and Edu conversations remain available through OpenAI’s compliance logs, so this does not bypass organizational oversight.
• –For developers, it offers a practical way to retain sensitive debugging or customer conversations without exposing them during casual screen sharing.