[Feature Request] PIN-protected private projects with hidden chat metadata

Variant

Unified ChatGPT/Codex desktop app on macOS, ChatGPT web, and mobile apps.

Problem

ChatGPT Projects organize conversations, files, instructions, and context, but they do not provide a privacy boundary when a device is temporarily shared or another person has physical access to an already signed-in ChatGPT session.

Project chats also appear in global Recents, search results, previews, and potentially notifications. Even if opening a project were restricted, exposing chat titles or snippets could reveal sensitive personal or professional information.

Proposed feature: Project Lock

Please add an optional Protect project setting that lets the project owner secure a project with a PIN. When a project is locked:

• Opening the project, its chats, files, instructions, or sources requires the PIN.
• The project name can optionally be hidden or replaced with a neutral label such as Locked project.
• Its chats and metadata do not appear in global Recents, search results, previews, suggestions, or notifications.
• ChatGPT does not reveal titles, snippets, uploaded filenames, generated artifacts, or project-specific memory while the project is locked.
• The project automatically locks when the app is closed, the device is locked, the account is inactive for a configurable period, or the user selects Lock now.
• The same protection applies consistently across desktop, web, iOS, and Android.
• Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello, or another platform authentication method may be offered as an alternative to entering the PIN.

Expected value

This would add a practical privacy layer for people who temporarily share a computer or mobile device, without requiring a separate account or a complete secondary-profile system. Projects would remain an organizational feature while users could explicitly protect selected sensitive projects.

Additional considerations

Suggested placement: Project menu → Project settings → Privacy → Protect project.

Project-only memory controls contextual isolation for ChatGPT, whereas Project Lock would control human-visible access in the user interface. These are complementary protections.

Recovery should require full account re-authentication and notify the account owner. To avoid leaking information, locked projects should remain excluded from search, Recents, notifications, widgets, shortcuts, and system-level indexing until unlocked.

The issue names no files, tests, or entry points. First verify whether this Rust terminal repository contains the proposed Project UI and cross-platform surfaces; completion requires an agreed scope and implementation plan for PIN protection, metadata hiding, and platform authentication.