{"slug": "meta-pushes-back-on-claim-that-muse-ai-read-a-user-s-messages-without-consent", "title": "Meta Pushes Back on Claim That Muse AI Read a User's Messages Without Consent", "summary": "Meta head of communications Andy Stone said Wednesday that the Muse AI agent's Messages integration on Mac is \"entirely opt-in,\" requiring both Full Disk Access and the Messages connector, after Inc. columnist Jason Aten reported that Muse synced his Messages database up to row 187,462 even though his Mac showed Full Disk Access as off. Meta Superintelligence Labs lead David Singleton said Muse's earlier claim that it only saw notification banners was wrong, while Aten disputes Meta's account; separately, YouTuber Matt Robb says Muse gave his home address to a Facebook Marketplace buyer, which Meta's Singleton says Muse asks permission for. Amazon began blocking Muse on Sept. 21, saying it does not identify itself while browsing and appears to capture customer credentials, and Meta says Muse has no visibility into passwords or payment methods.", "body_md": "#### In brief\n\n- Meta communications chief Andy Stone said Wednesday that Muse's Messages integration on Mac is opt-in, requiring both Full Disk Access and the Messages connector.\n- Inc. columnist Jason Aten says Muse synced his Messages database up to row 187,462 even though his Mac showed Full Disk Access as off.\n- Separately, YouTuber Matt Robb says Muse gave his home address to a Facebook Marketplace buyer; Meta's David Singleton says Muse asks permission in such cases, and Robb disputes that.\n\nMeta says its Muse AI agent can't read your Messages on a Mac unless you let it, disputing an account from a tech journalist last week who said Muse was all up in his iMessages without permission.\n\nAndy Stone, the company's head of communications, said Wednesday on X that the integration is \"entirely opt-in.\"\n\n“It can't read your Messages unless you do this. And it can be revoked at any time,” he wrote.\n\nTwo switches have to be on, per Stone. One is Full Disk Access, a setting in Apple's Mac software that lets an app read files anywhere on your computer. The other is the Messages connector, Muse's own on/off switch for that app, and both can be revoked at any time.\n\nLet's set the record straight: the Messages integration in the Muse app for Mac is entirely opt-in. You have to enable both Full Disk Access and the Messages connector for Muse to be able to read your Messages content. It can't read your Messages unless you do this. And it can be…\n\n— Andy Stone (@andymstone) [September 30, 2026](https://x.com/andymstone/status/2105106775259128080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)\n\nHe was answering AppleInsider, which reported on Inc. columnist Jason Aten’s [experience](https://decrypt.co/379122/metas-muse-ai-agent-user-private-imessages-lied-how) in which the AI uploaded his texts to its cloud despite his permission settings.\n\n## What Aten says happened\n\nMuse is a personal AI agent, meaning software that doesn't just answer questions but acts for you, like sending an email or booking travel. Meta [launched it](https://about.fb.com/news/2026/09/introducing-muse-personal-ai-agent/) on Sept. 8, and it had surpassed [2.5 million downloads](https://decrypt.co/379122/metas-muse-ai-agent-user-private-imessages-lied-how) by Sept. 23.\n\nMeta built Muse inside Superintelligence Labs, its AI research unit, whose first model, [Muse Spark](https://decrypt.co/363691/meta-muse-spark-most-capable-ai-gemini-pro-still-leads), arrived April 8.\n\nAten installed Muse on an iPhone and a Mac mini. He says he declined to give it access to his messages during setup, and that he checked afterward: Full Disk Access was off.\n\nThen Muse pitched him a column idea based on a private text exchange with his podcast co-host. It also flagged a message from his editor about a deadline.\n\nWhen he asked how it knew, Muse said it only saw the pop-up banners of incoming notifications. Aten says that wasn't true. He found Muse had synced his local Messages database, the file where a Mac keeps your text history.\n\n## What Meta says\n\nDavid Singleton, who leads Meta Superintelligence Labs, said the notification explanation Muse gave [was wrong](https://www.threads.com/@davidsingleton/post/DddI7WtG8ul). Muse syncs Messages data when Messages access is enabled, he said.\n\nSingleton also said reading Messages takes three separate steps of permissions, and that macOS protections can't be bypassed even if the Muse app had a bug.\n\nAten says Full Disk Access was off on his machine and the texts synced anyway. Meta says Muse can't read Messages without it.\n\n## Why a toggle matters\n\nAn AI agent acts with whatever access you hand it, so the permission screen is the guardrail. Your texts hold family chats and the codes your bank sends to confirm it's you.\n\nThis fight is bigger than Meta. Amazon started blocking Muse on Sept. 21, saying it doesn't identify itself while browsing and appears to capture customer credentials. Meta says Muse has no visibility into passwords or payment methods.\n\nAmazon won the first round of a similar fight. On March 10, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction, a court order that holds while the case continues, [blocking Perplexity's Comet](https://decrypt.co/360629/amazon-perplexity-comet-court-order-agentic-commerce) from buying on Amazon for users.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-pushes-back-on-claim-that-muse-ai-read-a-user-s-messages-without-consent", "canonical_source": "https://decrypt.co/379868/meta-muse-ai-agent-read-messages-without-permission", "published_at": "2026-10-01 19:16:03+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-10-01 21:32:02.857859+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-agents", "artificial-intelligence", "ai-products", "ai-safety"], "entities": ["Meta", "Muse", "Andy Stone", "Jason Aten", "David Singleton", "Meta Superintelligence Labs", "Amazon", "Matt Robb"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-pushes-back-on-claim-that-muse-ai-read-a-user-s-messages-without-consent", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-pushes-back-on-claim-that-muse-ai-read-a-user-s-messages-without-consent.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-pushes-back-on-claim-that-muse-ai-read-a-user-s-messages-without-consent.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-pushes-back-on-claim-that-muse-ai-read-a-user-s-messages-without-consent.jsonld"}}