Beware! ChatGPT can save all your conversations even if you try to delete them.
This week, OpenAI announced that folks with free accounts can now use the memory feature in ChatGPT. This means the chatbot can remember past chats to give better answers in the future.
However, there’s some news from a recent court decision that requires OpenAI to keep all conversations, even the ones users deleted.
This decision came after some lawsuits filed by news outlets like The New York Times, as reported by the tech site Mashable, which also got a look at the story from Al Arabiya Business.
On May 13, 2025, U.S. Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang told OpenAI to "keep storing all output log data that might be deleted later, starting now until we hear more from the court."
Even though this ruling was made a few weeks ago, it only came to light recently since OpenAI started to appeal the decision.
According to the tech news site ArsTechnica, OpenAI is asking for a chance to present arguments to put a hold on the judge's order.
The plaintiffs, including The New York Times and other news organizations, claim that OpenAI might delete ChatGPT chats that could make them look bad. For example, if users ask the chatbot to summarize articles to get around paywalls. OpenAI argues that these claims are just speculation with no proof.
If the judge's decision is enforced, ChatGPT users will need to assume that all their chats are being saved, which raises some big privacy questions for millions of people.
