Privacy

ChatGPT finally has a way to hide conversations without deleting them. OpenAI began rolling out Locked Chats on Tuesday, October 20, a feature that lets users put a four-digit PIN, or Face ID / Touch ID on supported devices, on individual conversations, keeping them out of regular chat history, pinned chats, and search results. The scenario OpenAI has in mind is painfully ordinary. You’re handing your phone to a friend to show them something, and the last thing you want is a personal conversation sitting there in the sidebar. With the lock on, that thread simply doesn’t appear until you authenticate. Tap a locked chat and it moves into a dedicated “Locked Chats” section, kept apart from everything else. ...

Apple updated its App Store Review Guidelines on October 16, 2026, making developers responsible for preventing and removing AI-generated nonconsensual intimate imagery, and banning apps that disguise nudify features as harmless photo editors to slip through review. Full story in slides above. Sources: TechCrunch, MacRumors, WebProNews, AppleInsider, News18, October 16-20, 2026.

Flock Safety plans to eliminate about 270 jobs — 18% of its roughly 1,500-person workforce — as public backlash over its AI-powered license-plate cameras finally catches up to the company itself, Reuters reported Thursday. The cuts are expected to take effect at the end of October. They follow a voluntary separation program Flock opened in September, and they land at a moment when the Atlanta startup’s technology is under sustained attack from the very communities it serves. Sources told Reuters reporters Krystal Hu and Helen Coster that the company declined to comment; the sources spoke anonymously because Flock has not made the plans public. ...

Apple will tighten macOS Full Disk Access, saying that as AI agents grow more capable and autonomous, “the risks associated with this level of access will grow substantially.” The permission was designed for backup apps but can expose files, mail, messages, and browsing history — and in communication apps, the privacy of the people you talk to as well. Apple named no apps, set no date, and described only forward-looking controls requiring “very explicit user action.” Full story in slides above — sources: Apple Developer News (Oct 2, 2026) via PCMag, TechCrunch, Bloomberg/Business Standard, MacRumors, October 2-6, 2026. ...

Apple has had enough of apps asking for the keys to the entire Mac. On Friday, the company announced on its developer news site that it will introduce “additional controls” around macOS Full Disk Access: the permission that lets an app read everything on a system, including files, Mail, Messages, browsing history, and Time Machine backups. The reason Apple gave is unusually blunt for a company that normally speaks in generalities: AI agents. ...

Meta’s AI-powered smart glasses went mainstream — then the backlash arrived. UK pubs, theaters and schools started banning the camera-equipped Ray-Bans over covert recording fears, courts are weighing privacy lawsuits, and Meta is now answering with camera-free glasses. Full story in the slides above — Sources: Reuters (via Taiwan News, Daily Sabah, Express Tribune, Sept 22–27, 2026), BBC News (via UA.News, Sept 2026), CNN (via Mezha, Sept 2026).