Meta has disputed a journalist’s claim that its Muse AI agent accessed private Apple Messages without permission, saying the integration requires users to explicitly enable multiple system and application-level controls. Inc. columnist Jason Aten reported that Muse appeared to read his messages even though he believed Full Disk Access was disabled.
Meta communications vice president Andy Stone responded publicly, saying the Messages integration on Muse for Mac is entirely optional. He said users must enable both Full Disk Access and the Messages connector before Muse can read message content.
Meta Says Messages Access Requires Multiple Steps
Meta says Muse requires several layers of approval before it can access Apple Messages. David Singleton of Meta Superintelligence Labs said users first have to grant Full Disk Access and then choose whether Muse receives no access, read-only access, or broader access to Messages.
Enabling Full Disk Access also moves the user into macOS Settings, where the permission must be confirmed manually. Singleton said changing the setting forces Muse to restart, adding another step before the integration becomes active.
Meta’s official Muse launch announcement says users decide which apps Muse connects to and what level of access it receives. The company says Muse also provides an audit trail of its activity and requires approval before certain sensitive actions.
Aten’s original report presents a different account. He said Full Disk Access was switched off when Muse surfaced information from his messages, and that Muse told him it had obtained the content by syncing device notifications.
Singleton said that explanation from Muse was incorrect and that the AI had become confused when describing what happened. Meta has also pointed users toward Muse’s security architecture and bug bounty documentation for details about its protections.
Earlier Muse Incident Also Involved Permissions
The dispute comes after another Muse user reported that the agent shared his address while helping sell items through Facebook Marketplace. In that case, the user later acknowledged that he had granted a permission that allowed the action to occur.
Meta has positioned Muse as a personal agent that can act across connected services while letting users control its access. The company says connected app permissions can be changed or revoked at any time.
The company has not said that Muse bypassed Apple’s permission system in Aten’s case. Its position is that the access described in the report could not occur unless the required permissions had previously been granted.
Featured image credits: Wikimedia Commons
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