{"id":918953,"date":"2026-10-03T10:38:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T10:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/918953\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T10:38:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T10:38:18","slug":"apple-to-tighten-mac-privacy-controls-against-ai-agents-after-meta-muse-complaints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/918953\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple to tighten Mac privacy controls against AI agents after Meta Muse complaints"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple has said that it will introduce new privacy controls against artificial intelligence<\/a> agents on its Mac computers<\/a> following user complaints that Meta Platforms’ Muse may have accessed private messages.<\/p>\n

The new guardrails are aimed at ensuring users who want to give an app full disk access can only do so \u201cwith very explicit user action\u201d, the iPhone maker said on its developer site.<\/p>\n

Full disk access grants an app a path to include potentially sensitive information in files, emails, messages and browsing history, and allows backup apps to function properly on Macs, according to Apple. It noted that the feature \u201clargely sidesteps\u201d the set of controls in developer application programming interfaces that are designed to protect private user data.<\/p>\n

The safety feature will also apply to third-party apps. California-based Apple did specify when the roll-out will begin.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome developers are using full disk access in ways that could put users at risk, exposing everything on their systems \u2026 without users\u2019 full knowledge and understanding,\u201d Apple said. \u201cFor communication apps, this can also compromise the privacy of the people users are communicating with.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Trump meets AI chiefs to discuss regulation<\/p>\n

The company acknowledged that AI agents \u2013 autonomous models capable of making decisions and achieving specific goals with limited supervision \u2013 have \u201cbecome increasingly capable and autonomous\u201d and \u201cthe risks associated with this level of access will grow substantially\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAddressing this is critical \u2026 going forward, we will introduce additional controls to ensure that users who genuinely wish to grant an app this extraordinary level of access can only do so with very explicit user action,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n

Apple’s move follows the latest setback for Meta’s AI efforts. The Facebook parent introduced Muse<\/a> last month, describing it as a \u201cpersonal AI agent built for everyone\u201d, able to perform complex tasks.<\/p>\n

At the time, Meta chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan said that Muse was safe, secure and private, and made sure that users were in control of \u201cwhat it can access\u201d \u2013 all qualities Meta<\/a> offerings have been criticised for lacking in recent years.<\/p>\n

But user complaints have recently crept up and claim that Muse could access supposedly private user information, particularly messages. California-based Meta has yet to formally address those claims.<\/p>\n

In July, Meta scrapped Muse Image<\/a> days after it was launched amid a backlash over privacy concerns<\/a>, particularly because Muse was being automatically \u2013 and without consent \u2013 linked to Instagram accounts. Users were unaware the pictures on their handles could be used by Muse without their knowledge.<\/p>\n

Last month, Meta admitted one of its AI models hacked into three companies \u2013 joining a list of high-profile companies<\/a> including Anthropic, Gemini owner Google and ChatGPT maker OpenAI in disclosing that their technology has potentially compromised other websites. This added to growing concerns over the risks associated with AI.<\/p>\n

Revenue for Apple Mac computers increased 29 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter as shipments rose 30 per cent, the latest data from Counterpoint Research shows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple has said that it will introduce new privacy controls against artificial intelligence agents on its Mac computers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":918954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1572,276,14219,49,48,281,2225,1320,61],"class_list":["post-918953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-apple","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-business-team","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-meta","tag-standard","tag-story","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=918953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/918954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}