Apple changes full-disk access permissions to curb abuse from AI agents

Apple announced on Friday it is changing macOS privacy settings to prevent third-party app developers from misusing full-disk access permissions to read users' message histories, following a report by tech columnist Jason Aten that Meta's AI agent Muse sent him an unsolicited notification referencing a thread in Apple Messages he never granted it permission to read. Meta CTO David Singleton rebutted that Muse requires users to manually grant two privileges — full-disk access and a Messages connector setting in Muse — before it can access Apple Messages.

Apple changes full-disk access permissions to curb abuse from AI agents Ars Technica AI https://arstechnica.com Meta says FDA isn't sufficient to Muse reading messages. Apple begs to differ. Apple says it is changing its macOS privacy settings to stop third-party app developers from misusing them to access message histories. Friday's announcement https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=p6zjojqw comes two weeks after tech columnist Jason Aten said https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/metas-new-muse-ai-agent-read-my-private-messages-i-never-asked-it-to/91408202 that Meta’s new general-purpose AI agent https://www.machinebrief.com/glossary/ai-agent Muse sent him an unsolicited notification referencing a thread between him and a co-worker over Apple Messages. Aten said he never granted Muse permissions to read his messages and had assumed they were off-limits. Social media last week blew up with masses of people who agreed and said the incident showed that AI assistants given access to calendars, emails, messages, shopping accounts, and other resources are akin to a skill saw or other power tool. While potentially useful, they can do real damage if not used carefully. He said/she said Meta CTO David Singleton joined the fray https://www.threads.com/@davidsingleton/post/DddI7WtG8ul with a rebuttal that appeared solid. For Muse to access Apple Messages, a user must manually give it two privileges. One is full-disk access, a macOS system-level permission. The other is to enable a Messages connector setting in Muse. Get AI news in your inbox Daily digest of what matters in AI.