ChatGPT can now remember what you did on your Mac — without screenshots
OpenAI's Computer History for ChatGPT Work and Codex on macOS captures local activity across apps and sites, enabling context recovery without screenshots or audio. Opt-in, it targets Pro, Business, Enterprise users. This marks a shift toward context-aware agents with persistent OS-level memory, raising the bar for cross-application AI integration. However, it also raises privacy concerns, especially given concurrent reports of API vulnerabilities exposing reasoning traces and leaked credentials. The feature's local capture design requires careful data governance. While beneficial for workflow continuity, operators must weigh the security implications of persistent activity logging.
ChatGPT can now remember what you did on your Mac — without screenshots
ChatGPT can now remember what you did on your Mac — without screenshots. OpenAI’s opt-in Computer History captures a local timeline of Mac activity so ChatGPT Work can recover context across selected apps and sites.
Key takeaway
Persistent, event-based computer history transforms ChatGPT from a reactive tool into a proactive, context-aware agent, but creates new attack surfaces for sensitive local data.
What happened
OpenAI is launching Computer History for ChatGPT Work and Codex on macOS, an opt-in feature that captures a local timeline of Mac activity to let ChatGPT recover context across selected apps and sites. The New Stack reports it does not rely on screenshots or audio, and it is available to Pro, Business, and Enterprise users.
Concurrent reporting highlights security concerns: The Decoder found a vulnerability in OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google APIs that allows extraction of encrypted reasoning traces, with dozens of passwords and API keys leaked in public sessions. Additionally, OpenAI announced a preview of its ChatGPT desktop app for Linux, extending its ecosystem to developers.
Evidence
OpenAI's Computer History for macOS captures local activity without screenshots or audio, for ChatGPT Work and Codex users, available to Pro, Business, and Enterprise.
The New Stack AI · attributed
OpenAI is launching 'Computer History' for ChatGPT Work and Codex on macOS, allowing the AI to remember user activities across apps and websites without relying on screenshots or audio. This feature, available to Pro, Business, and Enterprise users, captures…
Security researchers found a vulnerability in OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google APIs that extracts encrypted reasoning traces and leaks credentials.
The Decoder · attributed
Security researchers found a vulnerability in the APIs of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google that lets them extract encrypted reasoning traces and move them between models. A scan of public sessions turned up dozens of passw…
OpenAI previews a ChatGPT desktop app for Linux, supporting ChatGPT, ChatGPT Work, and Codex.
OpenAI (X) · attributed
Now in preview: The ChatGPT desktop app for Linux. Use ChatGPT, ChatGPT Work, and Codex where you already work and build, with your projects and browser workflows on supported Linux systems. Video
Why it matters
For builders and operators, this signals a shift towards 'context-as-a-service' where the AI's utility is directly tied to its ability to persistently understand user behavior across the entire operating system, not just within a chat window, while also surfacing security and privacy trade-offs that must be managed.
Limits and uncertainties
The Le Figaro article could not be fully analyzed due to browser context closure during extraction, limiting insight into enterprise data governance trends.
The Towards AI article lacked analysis, so its contribution is unknown.
Practical implications
Operators must manage opt-in consent and local data retention policies for Computer History.
Assume reasoning traces sent via API are not truly private; audit exposure.
The Linux desktop app preview signals expanded integration points requiring cross-platform security posture.
What to watch
Whether OpenAI releases detailed privacy documentation or hardening for Computer History.
If the reasoning trace vulnerability is patched across providers.
Adoption rates of the Linux ChatGPT app among developers.
