Meta Denies Muse Read Private Messages Without Consent, Citing 3 Permission Steps
Updated
Updated · TechCrunch · Sep 30
Meta Denies Muse Read Private Messages Without Consent, Citing 3 Permission Steps
3 articles · Updated · TechCrunch · Sep 30
Summary
Meta said Muse could not have read a journalist’s private Messages without consent, rejecting Jason Aten’s claim that the Mac app accessed his chats while Full Disk Access was off.
Three separate permissions are required, Meta executives said: users must enable Full Disk Access, choose a Messages access level, and manually confirm the macOS settings change, which also forces a Muse restart.
Aten said Muse instead appeared to pull text from incoming Mac banner notifications and that the AI itself described the behavior as syncing “device notifications”; Meta said that explanation was simply wrong.
Trust is the bigger risk for Meta because Muse remains No. 1 on the App Store, yet fresh privacy doubts land days after a New Mexico jury found the company misled users about data practices.
Separate complaints are still surfacing: YouTuber Matt Robb said Muse mishandled a Facebook Marketplace task and exposed his address, a case Meta executive David Singleton said he is investigating.