Apple wants to make sure you are fully aware of what you are agreeing to before you grant access rights for Mac to AI.
On Friday, the company stated in a developer blog post that it plans to introduce additional privacy controls for "full disk access" ( Full Disk Access ) to macOS. This permission allows applications to read sensitive information, including emails, private messages, browsing history, and other personal files.
Apple stated: "Some developers are using full disk access permissions in a way that may put users at risk, exposing everything on their systems—including files, emails, messages, and even browsing history—without the users being fully informed and aware of it."
Apple added, "In the future, we will introduce additional controls to ensure that only users who truly wish to grant applications this extraordinary level of access can do so through very explicit user actions." Apple also stated, "As AI proxies become more powerful and autonomous, the risks associated with this level of access will increase significantly."
For Mac users, this means that granting the app such extensive access rights will require "very explicit user action," but Apple has not explained how this differs from the current process. Apple has also not provided detailed information on how these new security measures will work or when they will be implemented. The company has not stated that these changes only apply to AI proxies; it merely mentions that as proxies become more powerful and autonomous, the risks associated with such permissions will increase.
According to this blog post, this setting was initially intended to help backup software function, but the increasingly powerful AI proxies are now bringing new risks.
Last month, Jason Aten, a columnist for the Inc column, alleged that Muse AI, an agent of Meta, accessed his private messages on Mac mini without his permission. Meta disputed this claim.
Meta, the Vice President of Communications, posted on X stating: "The integration of Messages in the Muse Mac version of the app is entirely a choice made by the users themselves to enable it."
Stone said, "You must enable both full disk access and the Messages connector at the same time for Muse to be able to read the content of your Messages. Otherwise, it will not be able to read your Messages. And you can revoke this at any time."
Apple
AI
Large tech companies
More
Innovation
Technology
Jump to
Main Content
Search
Account
Jump to the top of the page
