Meta disputes claim that Muse read a user's messages

Meta is disputing a claim from Inc. columnist Jason Aten that its AI agent Muse read his private messages without his permission. Following Aten’s report, Meta VP of Communications Andy Stone pushed back on X: “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.”

Stone’s statement followed a more technical explanation from David Singleton, a Meta Superintelligence Labs executive, who responded directly to Aten on Threads. Singleton said granting Muse access to Messages requires three separate layers of application- and system-level permissions on macOS that cannot be bypassed even if Muse itself had a bug. Users must first grant Full Disk Access, then choose a specific access level for the Messages app — none, read-only, or read — options that stay grayed out until Full Disk Access is enabled. Granting Full Disk Access also triggers a macOS system dialog requiring manual confirmation and a full restart of the Muse app, which Singleton said makes it unlikely such access could be granted by accident.

Aten’s report, however, claimed Full Disk Access was off when Muse read his messages, and that when he asked Muse to explain, the AI said it was syncing his “device notifications” — which Aten believes means Muse was relaying the text of his incoming Mac notification banners. Singleton disputed that account too, saying the AI gave a confused, incorrect explanation of what happened, and pointed to Meta’s published page on Muse’s security architecture and bug-bounty process. In short, Meta’s position is that what Aten described did not and could not have happened.

Many people remain suspicious of Meta’s denial, a reaction the company’s history invites: years of mishandling consumer data have led to lawsuits, FTC violations, and fines, and just days ago a New Mexico jury found that Meta had misled users about its data practices in a case tied to the 2018 Cambridge Analytica breach.

This isn’t the only complaint about Muse. YouTuber Matt Robb separately said Muse mishandled a Facebook Marketplace sale, leading to his address being shared and a buyer showing up while he wasn’t home — an incident Singleton indicated the company is looking into, suggesting Meta believes that one may be on its end.

Why it matters

Muse remains the No. 1 app on the App Store, and Meta’s own history of data missteps means its ability to keep users’ trust — more than the technical merits of its defense — may decide whether the product holds that lead.