ChatGPT may be silently working on your phone and how to handle it

The "Background Conversations" feature in Voice Mode on the ChatGPT mobile application has the ability to automatically run in the background, silently "monitoring" users 24/24 even when the application is closed. But now users have a way to disable it.

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"Background Conversations" keep users' conversations with ChatGPT going when using other apps or when the screen is off. This means that ChatGPT can "listen" or "track" users' phone usage behavior 24/7.

On iPhone, when this mode is turned on, the chat will continue when the screen is turned off and will appear as a notification on the phone's lock screen.

When this feature is turned off, the conversation will stop as soon as the user exits the application. This feature is not enabled by default on some newly updated mobile devices.

How to turn off Background Chats on ChatGPT app

Reddit users (according to BGR) recently discovered that OpenAI has quietly implemented a new security feature for the ChatGPT application that allows users to disable "Background Conversations" on Android and iOS .

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When users install this feature, it will appear in Account Settings under Voice Mode. Users just need to turn off the "Background Conversations" section to disable the feature.

But not all users are updated with this new security feature.

Jessica Tanner

Update 08 June 2024