ChatGPT's new Locked Chats hides private conversations behind a PIN or Face ID, but it does not make them private from OpenAI.
OpenAI has added a feature called Locked Chats to ChatGPT. It lets you hide chosen conversations behind a four-digit PIN, so a family member or coworker who picks up your phone or sits at your computer will not stumble on them.
Locked chats do not appear in your regular history, your pinned chats or search results. They sit in their own Locked chats section. On iOS and Android, you can use Face ID or another biometric option, such as a fingerprint, instead of typing the PIN each time.
OpenAI says the feature does not offer end-to-end encryption. That means your chats are still stored on the company's servers, and the report says the data is used to train the model. The lock only keeps out people around you. It does not shield chats from the company or from legal requests.
The report adds that, as of October 2026, 7 of the 9 top chatbots collect user data by default.
The material does not say which plans get Locked Chats, whether it costs extra, or exactly when it reaches every user.
Use Locked Chats to keep people nearby out of your conversations, but do not type anything into ChatGPT you would not want stored on OpenAI's servers.
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