{"slug": "chatgpt-wants-full-disk-access-to-your-mac-and-messages", "title": "ChatGPT wants Full Disk Access to your Mac and Messages", "summary": "OpenAI's ChatGPT has introduced a plugin for macOS that can read, search, and send messages via Apple's Messages app, requiring Full Disk Access and access to contacts and automation tools. The plugin, available on all plans in the ChatGPT desktop app for macOS, works in Codex and ChatGPT Work, and OpenAI says it runs locally without creating an index of messages, but privacy experts warn it could become an always-on surveillance system.", "body_md": "<>&<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><&&><><><><><>Apple wasn’t joking when it [warned us](https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/09/the-digital-markets-acts-impacts-on-eu-users/) that competitors want access to our most private data. Now, [OpenAI’s ChatGPT](https://www.computerworld.com/article/4212037/apple-to-openai-go-to-your-room.html) has introduced a new plugin that can control Apple’s Messages app on Macs. This follows the earlier introduction of a new Computer History feature that [monitors what you do on your Mac](https://x.com/OpenAI/status/2087996496088297746?s=20). And while I don’t think Apple will challenge the new feature — yet — on the Mac, I do see trouble ahead on other platforms.\n\nSo, what’s ChatGPT’s new thing? Its latest tool means you can use the tool to read, write and send texts via Messages. The app can also search through messages and get message summaries and other information directly from Messages.\n\n“The Apple Messages plugin is available on all plans in the ChatGPT desktop app for macOS,” [says OpenAI](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/plugins?surface=app). “In Codex and ChatGPT Work, it can read and search iMessage, SMS, and RCS chats on your Mac and send messages on your behalf through the Messages app. It doesn’t let you interact with ChatGPT remotely through Messages, and it doesn’t work in regular ChatGPT chats.”\n\nSo, if you’ve ever wanted an AI system to go through all your messages to pluck out insights, you’re in luck (though you’ll probably want to check in with corporate legal before doing so). The system does require user consent before working, and OpenAI itself suggests such permission is given only on a per-use, rather than a blanket basis.\n\nChatGPT’s tool is not dissimilar to the contextual personal data insights promised by Apple’s SiriAI. You might use it to search for information buried in old messages, create new messages, delete them, and more. You might get ChatGPT to recommend a set of secure browser and messaging services you could use without sharing your information with an AI company and ask it to write a cheery message about dystopia for you, for example. There’s an ad featuring much more mundane examples [here](https://x.com/ChatGPT/status/2090499359641329950?s=20).\n\nThe company has suggested some prompts, including:\n\nThe way the system works isn’t quite as clear as I’d like it to be, given the personal data being parsed, along [with recent history](https://tech.yahoo.com/general/articles/chatgpt-macos-just-got-caught-134547811.html) on how ChatGPT protects such data on Macs.\n\nOpenAI [told Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-20/chatgpt-can-now-control-imessage-potentially-raising-apple-privacy-concerns) the plug-in runs locally on the Mac, and doesn’t create an index of a user’s messages. But that may not mean much, given the system *does* read a user’s existing messages and presumably has some kind of record of the data analysis itself. It is also not especially reassuring that OpenAI tells people not to turn on persistent approval, saying that doing so, “removes your final chance to review a message before ChatGPT sends it as you.”\n\nPerhaps of more concern is that the plugin also demands Full Disk Access in System Settings, along with access to contact names and automation tools.\n\nThe degree to which OpenAI is digging into the macOS to make these features work is already driving some backlash. Some [apologists tend to dismiss concerns around privacy](https://x.com/markgurman/status/2090580272433832177?s=20), while others warn that AI automation is becoming an [always-on surveillance system](https://x.com/GaryMarcus/status/2090583038338236533?s=20) that itself becomes a target for exploitation and attack. Both sides may have a point. But what I don’t see yet is any clear transparency around how the system delivers all its promised convenience without undermining user privacy. It’s all well and good to require consent to make the AI magic happen, but it would be far better, and more legitimate, for such consent to be informed.\n\nIt also seems very likely OpenAI plans to bring similar features to iPhones and iPads, which might yet open up a new front in Apple/OpenAI’s ongoing litigation around the provision of equal access to user data. That’s particularly true in Europe, where [the Digital Markets Act](https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/developer-portal/interoperability_en) requires Apple to provide third-party AI developers with the same deep system-level APIs and device access that Apple uses for its own AI tools.\n\nIt remains to be seen how Apple intends to meet that commitment, particularly as it has chosen not to offer SiriAI in Europe until it can agree on some way to offer that kind of access to third parties while continuing to protect user privacy. It is also hard to ignore that ChatGPT on a Mac has now become a prime target for hackers; if they can’t get into Messages directly, now all they need to do is hack the ChatGPT app to do it for them — perhaps using ChatGPT to [help them build the code with which to do it](https://x.com/ControlAI/status/2090565786205118516?s=20).\n\nI don’t think Apple will challenge OpenAI’s approach for now, as the company doesn’t appear to have actively subverted Mac security protection. But I do predict a showdown on iOS, particularly if Apple is unable to build support for the “[trusted intermediary](https://www.applemust.com/apples-siri-ai-stand-off-with-europe-just-escalated/)” approach it [originally proposed to the EU](https://www.applemust.com/eu-regulators-just-killed-europes-ios-developer-industry/), if only because of the wider extent of information collected on mobile. It also puts yet another slant on the [ongoing litigation between both companies](https://www.computerworld.com/article/4212037/apple-to-openai-go-to-your-room.html).\n\n*Join me on BlueSky, LinkedIn, Mastodon and subscribe to my newsletter for news and analysis.*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/chatgpt-wants-full-disk-access-to-your-mac-and-messages", "canonical_source": "https://www.computerworld.com/article/4212509/chatgpt-wants-full-disk-access-to-your-mac-and-messages.html", "published_at": "2026-08-21 15:39:02+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-21 16:12:39.091273+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-products", "ai-tools", "ai-ethics", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["OpenAI", "ChatGPT", "Apple", "Messages", "Mac", "Bloomberg", "Gary Marcus", "Mark Gurman"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/chatgpt-wants-full-disk-access-to-your-mac-and-messages", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/chatgpt-wants-full-disk-access-to-your-mac-and-messages.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/chatgpt-wants-full-disk-access-to-your-mac-and-messages.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/chatgpt-wants-full-disk-access-to-your-mac-and-messages.jsonld"}}