Meta Denies Its Muse AI Read a User’s Private Messages Without Permission
Meta says Muse needs both Full Disk Access and its Messages connector enabled, with three authorization steps and an app restart. Journalist Jason Aten disputes this, saying access was off and Muse may have read incoming notification banners.
Meta is disputing a journalist’s claim that its AI agent Muse accessed private messages on a Mac without the user’s knowledge or consent. The dispute became public in late September 2026 after Inc. columnist Jason Aten reported that Muse had read his private messages even though the required Mac permission — Full Disk Access — was turned off.
Meta VP of Communications Andy Stone pushed back on X, stating that the Messages integration in Muse 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,” Stone wrote. “It can’t read your Messages unless you do this.”
Meta Superintelligence Labs executive David Singleton offered a more technical rebuttal, explaining on Threads that granting Muse access to Messages requires three separate steps involving both application-level permissions and macOS system-level protections. Singleton said these protections “can’t be circumvented even if the Muse application had a bug.” Enabling Full Disk Access also triggers a full restart of the Muse app, making an accidental authorization less likely, he added.
Aten, however, maintained that Full Disk Access was off when the incident occurred. When he asked Muse to explain itself, the AI said it had been syncing his “device notifications” — suggesting to Aten that the agent may have passed along the text of incoming banner notifications. Singleton disputed that explanation as well, calling the AI’s response incorrect, and directed Aten to Meta’s page on Muse’s security architecture and bug bounty process.
The incident is not isolated. YouTuber Matt Robb separately reported that Muse mishandled a Facebook Marketplace task, resulting in his home address being shared with a buyer who arrived when he was not home. Singleton indicated on Threads that Meta is looking into that case.
The disputes arrive as Meta contends with ongoing scrutiny over its data practices, including a recent New Mexico jury finding that the company had misled users in connection with the 2018 Cambridge Analyska data breach. Muse currently holds the top spot on the App Store, but repeated incidents — verified or not — could affect user trust in the product.