NEWS · COMPANIES · #1460
Apple to tighten macOS 'Full Disk Access' controls citing AI agent risks
Apple announced it will introduce additional controls for the macOS ‘Full Disk Access’ permission after reports that desktop AI agents (including claims about Meta’s Muse and a Wired story about ChatGPT’s Mac app) highlighted risks of apps accessing files, messages and other personal data. The company says it will require very explicit user actions before granting this high level of access and has posted guidance for developers.
KEY POINTS
- Apple announced it will introduce additional controls for the macOS ‘Full Disk Access’ permission after reports that desktop AI agents (including claims about Meta’s Muse and a Wired story about ChatGPT’s Mac app) highlighted risks of apps accessing files, messages and other personal data.
- The company says it will require very explicit user actions before granting this high level of access and has posted guidance for developers.
- This matters because tightening Full Disk Access changes how desktop AI agents can access users' files, mail and messages, affecting privacy and security across macOS and signaling platform-level controls for emerging agentic apps.
WHY IT MATTERS
This matters because tightening Full Disk Access changes how desktop AI agents can access users' files, mail and messages, affecting privacy and security across macOS and signaling platform-level controls for emerging agentic apps.
SOURCES & TIMELINE
3Days after a journalist claimed that Meta’s Muse app on Mac read their private messages — a claim that Meta disputed — Apple announced that it’s introducing additional controls around a setting called “Full Disk Access” on macOS. The feature was designed to allow backups to function properly, but AI agents have now increased “the risks associated with this level of access,” Apple said. Apple’s statement comes shortl…
Mac apps will soon need ‘very explicit user action’ to gain full disk access, according to Apple. Apple will add new limits for “full disk access” on Mac in response to risks posed by AI agents, as reported earlier by TechCrunch . In an update on Friday , Apple says it’s rolling out new controls to “ensure that users who genuinely wish to grant an app this extraordinary level of access can only do so with very expli…
Apple says it is changing its macOS privacy settings to stop third-party app developers from misusing them to access message histories. Friday’s announcement comes two weeks after tech columnist Jason Aten said that Meta’s new general-purpose AI agent Muse sent him an unsolicited notification referencing a thread between him and a co-worker over Apple Messages. Aten said he never granted Muse permissions to read his…