Meta is pushing back against a report that its AI agent, Muse, read a user's private messages without permission. The claim came from Inc. columnist Jason Aten, who described the issue in a recent report.
Meta VP of Communications Andy Stone responded on X. He said the company does not believe Muse accessed messages without the user's consent.
"The Messages integration in the Muse app for Mac is entirely opt-in," Stone wrote. "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."
What Meta Says About Muse Permissions
Before Stone's statement, Meta Superintelligence Labs executive David Singleton replied directly to Aten on Threads. He gave a more technical explanation of how the permissions work.
Singleton said reading messages on a Mac requires "three separate steps of application-level permissions and built-in macOS system-level protections." He added that these steps "can't be circumvented even if the Muse application had a bug."
First, a user must grant Muse Full Disk Access. Only then can they choose what level of access Muse has to the Messages app. If Full Disk Access is off, those options are grayed out.
Turning on Full Disk Access also opens the macOS Settings screen, where the user must confirm the choice again. Singleton said this triggers a full restart of the Muse app. That makes it unlikely the setting could be turned on by accident.
The Journalist's Account
Aten's report said Full Disk Access was turned off when Muse read his messages. He asked Muse to explain how it happened.
According to Aten, the AI said it was syncing his "device notifications." Aten believes this means Muse was passing along the text of incoming banner notifications on his Mac.
Singleton disputed this explanation. He said the AI was confused and gave an incorrect answer about what happened.
He then pointed to Meta's page on Muse's security architecture and its bug bounty process. Meta's position is that what Aten described did not and could not have happened.
Some people remain doubtful of Meta's denial. The company has faced lawsuits, FTC violations, and fines over its handling of consumer data in past years.
Just days ago, a New Mexico jury found that Meta misled users about its data practices. That case stemmed from the 2018 Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal.
The Muse app currently ranks No. 1 on the App Store.
This is not the only complaint about Muse. YouTuber Matt Robb recently said Muse mishandled a task while he was selling items on Facebook Marketplace.
Robb said the error led to his address being shared, and a buyer showed up at his home when he was not there.
Meta looked into the case and described it as a complicated issue. Robb later admitted he had given Muse a permission that allowed this to happen.
