Comment by Aurornis
4 hours ago
> Is there a technical limitation that prevents chat histories from being stored locally on the user's computer
People access ChatGPT through different interfaces: Web, desktop app, their phones, tablets.
Therefore the conversations are stored on the servers. It's really not some hidden plot against users to steal their data. It's just how most users expect their apps to work.
Nonsense. It's easy to design an app where the server stores all information in an encrypted form. If OpenAI "cared about privacy" like this PR piece claims, they would do this. They don't because they (obviously) don't care and they (obviously) want the data for their purposes.
> It's easy to design an app where the server stores all information in an encrypted form.
I was responding to a comment asking why data had to be stored on the server.
Regardless, you're still missing the point that using ChatGPT to search through the data is a selling point of ChatGPT.
If you have a specialty use case where you don't want the data stored, searchable, or accessible, you should skip the official apps and use your own client through the API. This would solve all of your complaints.
"Easy" does not mean "lowest cost" or "easiest". It's far far far easier to stor conversations as plain text and return them as is, instead of having to encrypt, rotate keys, etc. etc.
That's a tricky system to get right and maintain
(Please do not interpret this as a defense of OpenAI! I just think that we shouldn't trivialize the task of encrypting user data so that it's not visible to the provider).