The trick: Scope Swap
OpenAI's new memory feature takes no screenshots.
It records everything you click and type instead.
Computer History, now in the ChatGPT macOS app, lets ChatGPT learn from everything you do on your computer, opt-in, screenshot-free, with a timeline you can inspect and delete.
Before you read on. Your call?
TRUE, BUT
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the mechanism records clicks, typing, keyboard shortcuts, and app switches through macOS accessibility features, which captures the content of what you type, a denser surveillance stream than pictures of your screen. Events sit on the Mac for up to 48 hours, then get processed on OpenAI's servers into memories under a non-retention, no-training promise, and land as plain-text files on disk. OpenAI's own documentation warns the feature raises prompt-injection risk and advises pausing collection around other people without their consent. The EEA, UK, and Switzerland are excluded at launch. This same app shipped its chat history in unencrypted plain text in 2024 until a researcher went public.
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The trick has a name
We call it Scope Swap: applies to far less than it sounds like. You'll see it again. Learn to spot it →
Receipts
- Supports web.archive.org:
It lets ChatGPT learn from everything you do on your computer, so it can better understand how you work, finish tasks that you're in the middle of, and suggest skills and automations based on how you use your computer.
- Context web.archive.org:
Computer History instead records interaction events exposed through macOS accessibility features, including clicks, typing, keyboard shortcuts, and switching between apps.
- Refutes web.archive.org:
Computer History temporarily stores interaction events on the Mac for up to 48 hours. OpenAI says the events are processed on its servers to generate memories, but are not retained after processing or used for training. The resulting plain-text memory files remain stored locally until deleted.
- Refutes web.archive.org:
OpenAI also warns that Computer History can increase prompt-injection risk from malicious content in apps or websites. The company recommends pausing collection during communications with other people without their express consent
- Context web.archive.org:
OpenAI chose to opt-out of the sandbox and store the conversations in plain text in a non-protected location, disabling all of these built-in defenses.
- Context web.archive.org:
ChatGPT can now remember what you did on your Mac — without screenshots
Open the Receipts Pack → What each source proves, every figure traced, and what would change our verdict.
