The pin does not hide the copy.
@ChatGPT posted at 17:32 UTC on October 20. https://x.com/ChatGPT/status/2112597766333673624. When I read it, that post had 4,207 likes, 279 reposts, 281 replies, 160 quotes, 776 bookmarks, and 349,049 impressions. The text says keep sensitive conversations out of view. Move them out of regular history and search into a protected space. Unlock with a PIN on web and desktop, or a PIN, Face ID, Touch ID, or device unlock on a phone. New messages in a locked chat will not update the memory used in regular chats. It is rolling out to Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu.
The post says protected. The help page is a list of what the lock does not do.
What the lock does not do
OpenAI’s page is https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001411-using-locked-chats-in-chatgpt. I read it today. Locking a chat changes where it appears and how you open it. It does not create end-to-end encryption or a separate encrypted vault. It does not change how long OpenAI retains the chat. It does not change the Improve the model for everyone setting. It does not remove information ChatGPT remembered before you locked the chat. It does not override workspace policies, safety requirements, or legal and compliance obligations.
The post with 349,049 impressions uses the memory line. It does not use the other four.
A locked chat still sits in the account. You find it under Projects, then Locked chats. The sidebar can show that project while the titles stay hidden. Opening it takes a 4-digit account PIN. On a supported phone you can also use Face ID, Touch ID, or the device unlock. The PIN belongs to the OpenAI account, not to a workspace and not to one phone. The same PIN works on every device signed into that account. Device authentication is optional, set per device, and it does not replace the PIN. After too many wrong attempts the page says access is disabled until a retry period ends. It does not say how many attempts, or how long the wait is.
Forgetting the PIN does not delete the chats. Resetting it does. The page says a reset permanently deletes every locked chat, the memories stored only inside them, and files protected only by the old PIN. OpenAI Support cannot get them back. The same page then says deleted conversations follow the standard retention policy. That page is https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8983778-chat-and-file-retention-in-chatgpt. A deleted saved chat leaves your account view immediately. OpenAI schedules it for permanent deletion within 30 days, unless it was already de-identified and pulled off the account, or they have to keep it longer for security or legal reasons. Resetting the PIN starts that deletion. It does not skip the 30 days.
I wrote on September 16 that turning off Improve the model for everyone does not unread a chat a contractor already graded. This lock does not flip that toggle. The help page says locking leaves Improve the model for everyone where it already is.
The sidebar is the part that moved
The page says the feature is for a shared screen or a shared device. Someone looking at history, pins, or regular search should not see the title. That is a real change. It is a change to the list, not to the file.
It is not finished on the devices you already have open. Other devices where ChatGPT is already open may keep showing the title until their lists refresh. On iOS, content that was already loaded can stay on screen until the app refreshes. The page tells you to check those devices before you share a screen. On the web, the chat can stay open in the tab you locked it from. Other tabs do not get access. Opening a regular chat in the same tab does not end that access. It ends when you leave the tab, refresh, or close it. The page does not give a minute count for the web. On iOS and Android, access ends after 1 minute away from a locked chat or the Locked chats area, or after 1 minute in the background. There is a Lock now control if you do not want to wait the minute.
Anyone who can open a locked chat can still copy the text. The page says that in one line. A PIN stops a person who does not have the PIN. It does not stop a paste.
A share link is separate. If the chat already had one, locking it does not delete the link. What was already shared stays up. New messages sent while the chat is locked are not added to that link. You delete the link yourself if you want the old share gone. A chat created from a shared link cannot be locked.
Files uploaded or created in the chat are hidden with it. If they were saved to Space, they stay hidden there, including from Space search, until you permanently unlock. You can open those files only inside that locked chat. They are not available in other chats, including other locked chats, even after you enter the PIN. Files you brought in from somewhere else in Space stay where they were. Locking this chat does not cover those copies.
The post mentions one memory rule. New messages after the lock can be remembered for other locked chats, and they do not update regular Memory. The other way is on the help page. A locked chat can still use what regular Memory already knows. Locking does not pull back a fact stored before you locked the thread. If you permanently unlock, the full conversation may be used for regular Memory when your settings allow it. Memories made while it was locked are not copied into regular Memory on the way out.
Enterprise and Edu still log the chats. The page says locked chats in those workspaces are included in conversation message logs available through the OpenAI Compliance Platform. A workspace admin cannot type your PIN, and cannot reset it. The admin also cannot turn the feature off with a workspace setting. That is not the same as the log being closed. The lock does not override the organization’s access to workspace data, or the policies on that workspace.
Some chats cannot be locked. Temporary chats, archived chats, group chats, chats made from a shared link, scheduled tasks, meeting recordings, background tasks, and chats whose replies were saved as project sources. Chats from the earlier Health experience cannot. Codex cannot, including cloud Codex. Local Work cannot. ChatGPT for Healthcare cannot. Eligible cloud chats in Chat or Work mode can.
The pin answers a different person
The person the PIN is for is the one looking at the screen. OpenAI is not that person. The retention period is the same period. The training toggle is the same toggle. A 4-digit PIN on their account does not move the chat off their systems.
If the problem is a shared laptop, use the lock, and check the other devices before you hand it over. If the problem is the copy, locking is the wrong control. Delete the chat, then read the 30-day line, and remember the exceptions for a chat they already pulled off the account or kept for security or legal reasons. I would not put a secret in either place and call the sidebar the fix.