Days after a journalist claimed that Meta’s Muse app on Mac read their private messages — a claim that Meta disputed — Apple announced that it’s introducing additional controls around a setting called “Full Disk Access” on macOS. This feature was designed to allow backups to function properly, but Apple stated that AI agents have now increased “the risks associated with this level of access.”
Context
The announcement follows a report by Inc. columnist Jason Aten, who revealed that Muse knew the content of his private messages, despite his assertion that he had not granted the AI agent permission. This raised significant questions about the security and trust users place in desktop-based AI, which can control various functions on their systems and access their files and messages.
The decision to limit the Mac feature also comes after a Wired report highlighted a flaw in ChatGPT’s Mac app that could have allowed hackers to access sensitive data. AI agents running on desktops enable users to provide their respective apps with greater access to files, messages, and other personal content by adjusting macOS settings.
