ChatGPT’s Latest Feature Allows Users to Delete Chat History Amid Privacy Concerns

Although ChatGPT received much acclaim over its natural language abilities, there was a section of users who worried about data privacy and data history. In order to pacify these users, OpenAI has introduced a new "incognito mode" feature.

As per the new feature, users can opt to not have their conversation history with ChatGPT saved by the company and also choose to not have their data used for "training" ChatGPT.

To access the new feature, users need to head to Settings and turn off the "Chat History and Training" toggle in the ChatGPT application. They can also choose to export their data from the Settings.

Nicholas Turley, OpenAI product officer assured that user conversations would be retained for a period of 30 days to check for any abuse before it is deleted permanently.

Furthermore, the company has also said that it would not use user conversations by default for training the generative AI tool anymore in the coming months.

The company also plans to come up with a "ChatGPT Business" subscription that will come with a host of features and user controls.

There has been a lot of scrutiny lately over users' data that ChatGPT is using to "train" its machine learning models.

There was a case last month where Italy banned ChatGPT over similar privacy concerns. The country agreed to resume ChatGPT provided it modified its platform giving users the tools to safeguard their data. After Italy voiced its opinion, France and Spain too expressed similar concerns.

OpenAI's Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati told Reuters that OpenAI was working to assure regulators that it was compliant with European privacy laws.

She also added that their new feature, which allows greater user control, has been in the works for several months.

"We'll be moving more and more in this direction of prioritizing user privacy," Murati said, so that "it's completely eyes off and the models are super aligned: they do the things that you want to do".

She also added that while user data has allowed OpenAI to improve ChatGPT continually, there are still a lot of issues to address with regard to the generative AI tool.