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OpenAI’s Mac Activity Log Reaches Europe Before Its Docs Catch Up

Computer History gives ChatGPT and Codex a record of selected desktop activity, but conflicting European availability guidance leaves administrators without a clean operational answer.

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OpenAI’s Mac Activity Log Reaches Europe Before Its Docs Catch Up
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OpenAI says its optional Computer History feature is now available in the Mac app for Pro, Business, and Enterprise users across the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. But the company’s own release notes still say the feature is unavailable in those markets. That contradiction leaves European administrators with an unclear answer about whether they can deploy it today. Computer History gives ChatGPT and Codex a searchable timeline of selected desktop activity. It can capture approved clicks, typing, keyboard shortcuts, and app activity, allowing the assistant to recover context from earlier work instead of starting from an empty prompt. OpenAI describes it as an event-based record—not screenshots or a screen recording—and says it does not collect microphone input, system audio, or private browsing activity. The feature is off by default. Users choose which apps and websites are covered, can pause collection, inspect individual entries, and delete records. On Business and Enterprise accounts, an administrator must enable it before an employee can opt in. There is also a data-use distinction worth noting. OpenAI says raw typed-content records are not used to train its models, but they are sent temporarily to create stored memories. Later chats using those memories or activity events may be used for model improvement if the user’s data controls allow it. The unresolved issue is retention: OpenAI has not published a default lifetime for these records. Until the regional guidance and retention policy are explicit, the key question is whether organizations can responsibly let Computer History observe sensitive workplace systems.

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3 key points

OpenAI says its optional Computer History feature is now available in its Mac app for Pro, Business, and Enterprise users across the EEA, UK, and Switzerland, following a wider rollout one week earlier. The feature creates searchable, event-based records that ChatGPT and Codex can use for continuity and automation. However, OpenAI’s release notes still list the regions as unsupported. Organizations also lack a...

  1. 01

    OpenAI announced the regional expansion on August 20, but Business and general release notes still say Computer History is unavailable there.

  2. 02

    The timeline records approved clicks, typing, shortcuts, and app activity—not screenshots, microphone input, system audio, or private browsing.

  3. 03

    Computer History is off by default; users can select sources, pause collection, inspect entries, and delete records.

OpenAI is extending ChatGPT’s memory beyond the chat window. Its optional Computer History feature can turn selected Mac activity into a searchable work timeline for ChatGPT and Codex—but the company’s European availability announcement and its release notes point in different directions.

OpenAI announced on August 20 that Computer History had expanded to Pro, Business, and Enterprise users of its Mac app in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, and Switzerland. The announcement came a week after a broader rollout. Yet, at publication, OpenAI’s Business and general ChatGPT release-note pages still said the feature was unavailable in those markets.

A record of work, not a recording of the screen

Computer History is designed to give ChatGPT and Codex context from earlier computer use, so they can recover selected work activity rather than start from an empty prompt. OpenAI describes the product as an event-based record from approved apps and websites, not a stream of screenshots or screen recordings. Its scope can include clicks, typing, keyboard shortcuts, and app activity.

The controls around collection

  • The feature is optional and off by default. Users can choose which apps and websites are covered, pause collection, inspect individual timeline entries, and delete them.
  • Private browsing is excluded. OpenAI also says Computer History does not collect microphone input or system audio through the feature.
  • On Business and Enterprise accounts, an administrator must first enable the feature before an individual worker can opt in.

The retention decision remains open

OpenAI’s cited announcement did not define a default retention period for Computer History. That leaves a practical procurement question for organizations considering whether the tool should observe internal development environments, customer systems, or other sensitive applications: deletion controls exist, but the default lifetime of the record was not specified.

The feature also points toward a more active form of desktop assistance. ChatGPT can answer timeline-based questions about prior work, and Computer History can suggest turning repeated activity into a skill or automation that Codex writes. The appeal is continuity: an assistant can recover what a person opened or attempted without requiring them to reconstruct the task in a new prompt.

For European administrators, though, the immediate issue is more basic. A feature that records workplace activity needs unambiguous regional guidance before it can be responsibly enabled. OpenAI’s announcement establishes its intended expansion; the still-conflicting release notes leave the operating status and documentation trail out of sync.

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