AI agents face tougher access on Mac
OpenAI says more than 35 million people now use its agent tools, ChatGPT Work and Codex, up from 10 million in July. Muse is not the only agent asking for this. In August, OpenAI added an opt-in feature to its ChatGPT Mac app that reads, summarises and sends texts for users, and it also needs Full Disk Access. Full Disk Access is staying on macOS. Apple’s aim is to make sure anyone handing an AI agent that much control knows what they are signing off on.
The company said on Friday that it will add new controls to the Full Disk Access setting in macOS, so users can grant it only through “very explicit user action”. In a post on its developer website, Apple said the setting exists so backup apps can work properly, and that it largely bypasses the privacy controls built into macOS. “Some developers are using Full Disk Access in ways that could put users at risk,” Apple wrote, adding that this happens without users’ “full knowledge and understanding”. Andy Stone, Meta’s vice president of communications, said on X that Muse can read Messages only if users enable both Full Disk Access and its Messages connector, and that access can be revoked anytime.
Apple is making it harder for apps to get sweeping access to a Mac. Full Disk Access lets an app read almost everything on a Mac, from files and mail to messages and browsing history. Apple also flagged a less obvious concern. When a communication app gets this access, the privacy of the people a user is chatting with is exposed as well. The announcement follows a claim by US columnist Jason Aten that Meta’s Muse AI agent read private messages on his Mac mini without his permission. Meta disputed this.