{"slug": "chatgpt-can-now-add-your-mac-activity-to-its-memories", "title": "ChatGPT Can Now Add Your Mac Activity to Its Memories", "summary": "OpenAI launched Computer History for ChatGPT on macOS this week, a feature that logs users' interactions with websites and applications to build personalized context, available to Pro, Business, and Enterprise subscribers but not in the EEA, Switzerland, or the UK. Unlike Microsoft's Recall, it uses macOS accessibility APIs to capture clicks, typing, and app switches, synthesizing summaries stored locally, with opt-in controls and admin management for Business and Enterprise plans.", "body_md": "OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot and Codex coding agents have had access to memories, the company’s term for context (background information) derived from previous chat activity, since April 2024. A new [Computer History](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/customization/computer-history) feature builds on that to include (if you opt in) logging your interactions with websites and applications, so it can essentially follow your footsteps to extrapolate where you want to go.\n\nThe feature launched this week on MacOS for subscribers to its Pro, Business and Enterprise plans (but not yet for users in the European Economic Area, Switzerland or the United Kingdom). According to the documentation, admins for the latter two plans can control whether users have the ability to enable the feature, in addition to individual user opt-in.\n\nBeyond having the ability to opt in, you can independently select which applications and websites are fair game, as well as pause tracking; you can also view or delete the history at will.\n\nIf Computer History sounds familiar, it’s because integrating your every on-device activity in the service of ultrapersonalized agenting is one of the foundations of every whizzy AI feature trotted out to sell tech in recent years. Notably, it hearkens back to Windows Recall, which Microsoft announced in May 2024 — and then quickly rolled back because of controversy over its [security and privacy flaws](https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/microsofts-ai-recall-feature-may-not-even-hit-your-pc-but-heres-how-to-disable-it/). About a year later, a refined version [began to appear in the operating system](https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/copilot-plus-pcs-are-getting-that-ai-recall-feature-for-real-now/).\n\nUnlike Recall and OpenAI’s [Chronicle](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/04/21/openai-chronicle-codex-screen-context-memories/) preview, which Computer History replaces, this particular implementation doesn’t capture screens, record voice input or use other similar types of monitoring. Instead, it uses accessibility application programming interface in MacOS to capture everything that API exposes: “clicks, typing, keyboard shortcuts, app switches, and context,” according to the company’s description.\n\nIt then periodically synthesizes that activity into a summary of what you’ve done rather than what you saw, heard or said. So, as far as I can tell, it can track and show you where to find files you looked at but not the content of the files. However, if you use that content as part of a future chat, it can link your activity to that content.\n\nEven if only a series of keyboard events gets recorded, that doesn’t necessarily mean the content can’t be inferred or exploited. These types of features fall into my privacy-slash-security complacency zone, where [browser fingerprinting](https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/browser-security-tools-take-browser-security-seriously/), [deanonymization](https://www.csoonline.com/article/545866/deanonymizing-you-i-know-who-you-are-after-1-click-online-or-a-mobile-call.html) and similar schemes dwell.\n\nThe summaries are generated in the cloud but stored locally on your system. The company says it doesn’t retain the activity files unless legally mandated and doesn’t use them for training.\n\nOpenAI does issue an explicit warning about the feature in its description: “Computer History files can contain sensitive information. They are not encrypted by Computer History, and other programs running as your macOS user may be able to access them.” The built-in disk encryption on MacOS probably offers a layer of protection in some cases, though.\n\nThe feature creates tokens for summarizing and memory creation, so your plan’s token budget and context window size may have an impact.\n\nThere’s no indication at the moment when or if a Windows or mobile app will be available.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/chatgpt-can-now-add-your-mac-activity-to-its-memories", "canonical_source": "https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/chatgpt-mac-activity-computer-history/", "published_at": "2026-08-14 21:01:04+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-14 22:29:24.269796+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-products", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["OpenAI", "ChatGPT", "Codex", "Microsoft", "Windows Recall", "Computer History", "macOS"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/chatgpt-can-now-add-your-mac-activity-to-its-memories", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/chatgpt-can-now-add-your-mac-activity-to-its-memories.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/chatgpt-can-now-add-your-mac-activity-to-its-memories.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/chatgpt-can-now-add-your-mac-activity-to-its-memories.jsonld"}}