Igeekphone News, July 16th: According to Wccfetch, a recent version update of OpenAI’s ChatGPT macOS client has unexpectedly brought about a privacy and security controversy.
Multiple users have reported that this software can read and display the local file directories and paths without obtaining full system access rights, raising concerns about the risk of data leakage.
According to user feedback, this update not only caused abnormal display of the chat interface and project history records, but also exhibited a potentially unauthorized reading of local files, which is a sensitive behavior. When one user asked for the location of the lost files, ChatGPT directly provided the precise local path on their computer, and even could identify hidden files.
Since this user did not grant ChatGPT full access to the macOS system, there is a suspicion that the software scans and indexes local files without authorization, posing a serious privacy risk.
The incident quickly spread on overseas social media platforms and sparked widespread discussions. However, most users with technical backgrounds believed that this controversy might just be a false alarm.
Some netizens explained that in various operating systems, the default settings of common applications allow them to read the basic directory paths, which is a common system mechanism and not a unique vulnerability specific to ChatGPT. This function can only identify the basic paths and cannot access the specific contents within private folders, and it does not exceed the system’s permission boundaries.
Another industry insider further explained that the new version of ChatGPT has added a work instruction mode, which can simulate basic terminal query operations. Therefore, it can recognize local file directories, which is a normal functional mechanism.
Based on the official statement from OpenAI, the software can only operate files within the workspace authorized by the user. Without the user’s permission, it will not read or write data automatically.
Currently，OpenAI has not issued any additional statements regarding this controversy， but the incident has prompted more users to pay attention to the permission management issues of desktop AI tools.