OpenAI has launched Computer History, a ChatGPT feature that logs Mac clicks and keystrokes, keeping raw event files for 48 hours and memories in unencrypted plain text.
Key Points:
- Computer History records clicks, typing, keyboard shortcuts and app switches on macOS, then turns them into searchable memories.
- Memory files are stored locally as plain-text Markdown without encryption, and other programs on the same account may read them.
- The feature is off by default and unavailable in the European Economic Area, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Computer History Replaces Chronicle Screenshots
OpenAI announced the feature in the desktop app changelog on Aug. 13. It reads clicks, typing, keyboard shortcuts and app switches through the macOS accessibility system, then converts that stream into text summaries and a browsable timeline.
Chronicle, the Codex research preview it replaces, worked from screenshots instead.
The rebuilt system captures no screen images, no screen recordings, no microphone input and no system audio, and it excludes private browsing entirely.
Users can ask what they were doing before a break, hunt down a document they opened earlier, or request a summary of the day's work, and the timeline groups every entry by day and time.
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OpenAI Warns Of Prompt Injection
The company's own documentation warns that Computer History widens the prompt injection attack surface.
A website carrying hidden instructions could persuade ChatGPT or Codex to follow them. OpenAI also tells users to switch the feature off during conversations with other people unless everyone has agreed in advance.
Memory files sit on the disk as plain-text Markdown without encryption, so other programs running under the same macOS account may be able to read them. Temporary event files disappear after 48 hours.
OpenAI processes those events on its servers and says it does not keep them afterward unless the law requires it.
Training marks the softer line, since the memory files never train models, though memories that surface as context in later chats can still feed model improvement. Summarizing all that activity also burns tokens, and the whole feature depends on the separate Memories setting being switched on.
ChatGPT Rollout Skips Europe
Computer History stays off by default, workplace access runs through an administrator before any individual member can opt in, and users can wipe entries covering the last 10 minutes, hour or day. It is unavailable in the European Economic Area, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and it does not work through an API key or Amazon Bedrock.
OpenAI shipped Chronicle in April as a research preview for Codex on the Mac, built around whatever appeared on screen.
The company now describes the successor as a rebuild rather than a rename, and says the newer approach consumes fewer tokens than the screenshot method it retires. Both versions chase the same goal, giving the assistant context that an ordinary chat window never sees.
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