{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-05T08:56:54.620Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"journalist","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"core","evidence":"","year":"2026","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":2,"coverage":{"cases":2,"countries":1,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":1,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":2,"contextualRelations":0,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2026-inc-columnist-says-meta-muse-agent-read-and-synced-mac-messages-without-permission-meta-disputes","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"disputed","evidence":[{"locator":"'I got a push notification from Muse suggesting that the conversation we were having would make for a good column'; 'I never gave it permission to read my messages'; 'I remember explicitly choosing not to let it have access to my messages, calendar, and other personal information'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'The Messages integration in the Muse app for Mac is entirely opt-in'","relation":"contradicts","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The columnist writes that Muse sent him a push notification proposing a column based on a private conversation with his podcast co-host and flagged a message from his editor, although he had chosen not to give it access to his messages.","causal_attribution":"Columnist's account; Meta disputes that access could occur without the user enabling it."},{"id":"c2","status":"disputed","evidence":[{"locator":"'Muse does sync your messages from the local Messages database and uploads that information as a data source'; 'On my device, it had been activated and synced to row 187,462 of my Messages database'; 'The settings pane in the Muse Mac app shows that Full Disk Access is not enabled'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'report claimed that when Muse read his messages, Full Disk Access was off'","relation":"context","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'the company’s response is essentially that what Aten said happened did not and could not have happened'","relation":"contradicts","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The columnist writes that he found Muse had synced his local Messages database, to row 187,462 on his device, while the Muse Mac app showed Full Disk Access as not enabled.","causal_attribution":"Columnist's account of his own inspection; not independently examined."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'It told me it didn’t have access to my message history at all'; 'the text of that notification gets relayed to me'; 'Except that wasn’t true'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'saying that the AI was confused and gave an incorrect explanation of what happened'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The columnist writes that Muse told him it had no access to his message history and was only relaying incoming notification banners, which he says was untrue; a Meta executive said the agent's explanation was incorrect.","causal_attribution":"Columnist's account; Meta's executive, per TechCrunch, also describes the agent's explanation as incorrect."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'You have to enable both Full Disk Access and the Messages connector for Muse to be able to read your Messages content'; 'can’t be circumvented even if the Muse application had a bug'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Meta's communications vice-president said the Messages integration is opt-in and that Muse cannot read Messages unless the user enables both Full Disk Access and the Messages connector; a Meta executive said the permission steps cannot be circumvented even by a bug.","causal_attribution":"Meta's position as reported by TechCrunch."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'I reached out to Meta twice, but did not immediately receive a response to my questions'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The columnist writes that he contacted Meta twice and did not immediately receive a response to his questions.","causal_attribution":"Columnist's account."}],"effects":[{"label":"private messages on his Mac read and synced by an AI agent after he says he declined that access (columnist's account; disputed by Meta)","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"},{"label":"inaccurate explanation from the agent of how it obtained the message content (columnist's account; Meta agrees the explanation was incorrect)","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/metas-new-muse-ai-agent-read-my-private-messages-i-never-asked-it-to/91408202","kind":"first_person_account","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-05 in the Internet Archive capture of 3 October 2026 (article body from the page's structured data); the live page returned HTTP 403 to the fetcher. Screenshots were not retrieved.","independence_group":"aten-inc-muse-account"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/meta-disputes-claim-that-muse-read-a-users-private-messages-without-permission/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-05 in full. Carries Meta's statements, which were not read in the original posts; its description of the columnist's claims derives from s1.","independence_group":"techcrunch-muse-meta-response"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["privacy","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["Whether the Messages access was enabled by the columnist, by a defect or in another way; the two accounts conflict and no independent examination is reported.","How many messages were synced and whether Meta retained or deleted them.","The exact date of the notification; the column says it came the day before he wrote, in the week Muse launched.","Where the columnist was."],"geography":{"basis":"Neither source states where the columnist was or lives; no country is recorded.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a concrete first-person account by a named columnist of an AI agent reading private messages he says he had not shared with it, recorded together with Meta's reported denial. The central claim is marked disputed.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-05"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The columnist describes a Muse push notification built on his private messages and his own inspection of the Muse sync state. Meta does not deny that Muse can read Messages when enabled; it disputes that this can happen without the user granting access.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with","acted_on_behalf"]},"name":"Inc. columnist Jason Aten says Meta's Muse agent read and synced the Messages database on his Mac after he chose not to grant access, then gave him an inaccurate explanation; Meta says the integration is opt-in and cannot run without the user enabling it","summary":"In a column for Inc., technology columnist Jason Aten writes that after he installed Meta's Muse agent on his iPhone and a Mac mini, it sent him a push notification proposing a column based on a conversation he was having with his podcast co-host and flagged a message from his editor. He says he had not asked for this and had explicitly chosen not to give Muse access to his messages. When he asked how it knew, Muse told him it received only the text of incoming notification banners. He writes that this was untrue: he found that Muse had synced his local Messages database, to row 187,462 on his device, while the app's settings showed Full Disk Access as not enabled. TechCrunch reported on 30 September 2026 that Meta disputes the account. Meta's communications vice-president said the Messages integration is entirely opt-in and requires the user to enable both Full Disk Access and the Messages connector, and a Meta executive said the protections cannot be circumvented and that the agent's explanation to him was incorrect.","incidentDate":"2026-09-01","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"month","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2026-09-19","aiSystem":"Meta Muse personal AI agent (iPhone and Mac apps) with a Messages data-source integration on macOS","aiProduct":"Meta Muse agent","aiCompany":"Meta","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"disputed","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["loss_of_autonomy","other_material_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"By the columnist's account, Meta's Muse agent read and uploaded private messages from his Mac, including exchanges with a co-host and his editor, after he had chosen not to grant that access, and then misdescribed what it had done; Meta disputes that this could happen without the user enabling it.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"disputed","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the columnist whose messages he says were read and synced. The people he was messaging are not counted because no source reports harm to them. Exact 1.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"unknown","platformType":"agent","outcomeType":"media_coverage","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/metas-new-muse-ai-agent-read-my-private-messages-i-never-asked-it-to/91408202","primarySourceLabel":"Inc., Jason Aten, 19 September 2026: Meta's New Muse AI Agent Read My Private Messages. I Never Asked It To","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-05T03:20:03.301312+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-05T03:20:03.301312+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["meta","muse","ai-agent","privacy","messages","permissions","macos","disputed","first-person","journalist","acted-on-behalf","communicated-with"]},{"id":"2026-los-banos-substitute-teacher-ai-lingerie-image-student-impersonation-account","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'On March 12, as he was working his other part-time job at a coffee shop, his phone lit up. A fellow barista said there was an AI photo circulating on social media.'; 'But instead of his work uniform, he was wearing lingerie. And instead of standing normally, as he had been in the original photo, he was posing suggestively.'; 'knew from the local middle school, where he regularly filled in.'; 'He discovered that a different student had created an account impersonating him—it used his name, slightly mispelled, and had the same photo as their profile picture.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'The article describes the image as incorporating elements of an older photograph of him that had been manipulated to depict him in lingerie and in a suggestive pose.'","relation":"context","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"On 12 March 2026 the teacher learned that an AI-generated image resembling him, made from an old mirror selfie but showing him in lingerie and posing suggestively, was circulating on social media; one TikTok account sharing it belonged to a student at the middle school where he substituted, and a different student had created an account impersonating him with the image as its profile picture.","causal_attribution":"The teacher's account to WIRED; the students' identities and the tool are not established in the reporting."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'he went back and forth with school administrators, the parents of the students, and even the police.'; 'One student, who admitted to creating the image, was disciplined with in-school suspension.'; 'was later told that the image was also shared on Snapchat.'; 'He says he also received several crude, sexual comments on his TikTok account.'; 'During one class, he received an AirDropped photo of the same AI-generated image before it was quickly revoked.'; 'He tells WIRED that, at least right now, he doesn’t feel safe doing so.'; 'reported the incident to the assistant principal'; 'the image continued to proliferate, and other students began posting it.'; 'he didn’t want to take assignments at the middle school “until this matter is fully addressed.”'; 'he probably won’t return to the district this year.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'said he eventually stopped accepting assignments at the middle school and told the publication he did not feel safe returning to the district at the time of the interview.'","relation":"context","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"He reported the image to the assistant principal and dealt with administrators, parents and police over the following weeks; a student who admitted creating it received an in-school suspension; the image was also shared on Snapchat and continued to spread, he received crude sexual comments on TikTok, he declined further middle-school assignments, the same image was AirDropped to him during a class at the local high school, and he told WIRED he does not feel safe returning to the district.","causal_attribution":"The teacher's account and WIRED's reporting; the school's discipline decision is known through him. The district did not respond to WIRED."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'The district did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'described the incidents in an Aug. 24 WIRED investigation examining educators who have been targeted with AI-generated sexualized content.'; 'The middle school, high school and school district were not identified by name in the WIRED report.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The district did not respond to WIRED's request for comment. The Los Banos Enterprise, summarising the WIRED report on 25 August 2026, states that WIRED did not identify the middle school, high school or district by name, and adds no reporting of its own.","causal_attribution":"Reporting-chain note: the local paper's item is derived from WIRED and does not corroborate the account independently."}],"effects":[{"label":"a sexualised AI image made from an old selfie circulated among students on TikTok and Snapchat and was used by a student account impersonating him","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"},{"label":"he received crude sexual comments, stopped taking assignments at the middle school and says he does not feel safe returning to the district","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.wired.com/story/teachers-deepfake-ai-students-content/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read live on 2026-09-30 (WIRED, Caroline Haskins, 24 August 2026); full visible text and the page's JSON-LD articleBody saved. The teacher's account is given in his own words and in WIRED's paraphrase; the district did not respond to WIRED.","independence_group":"wired-haskins-teachers-deepfakes-2026-08-24"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://losbanosenterprise.com/business/technology/2026/los-banos-substitute-teacher-says-sexualized-ai-image-of-him-circulated-among-students/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Live page returned Cloudflare HTTP 403 on 2026-09-30; read from the Internet Archive capture of 27 August 2026 (web.archive.org/web/20260827032911id_/). Los Banos Enterprise staff report, 25 August 2026, which summarises the WIRED investigation and adds no independent reporting; same chain as s1.","independence_group":"wired-haskins-teachers-deepfakes-2026-08-24"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["others_use"],"contexts":["work","education","privacy"],"unknowns":["Which AI tool produced the image.","How many students shared the image and how widely it spread beyond the two schools.","Whether the police took any action after his reports.","Whether the impersonation account was removed and whether he reported the content to TikTok or Snapchat.","The district's position; it did not respond to WIRED."],"geography":{"basis":"The teacher is a substitute in Los Banos, California, and the image circulated among students at the local middle school and high school (WIRED). No court proceeding is reported.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the charter's personal-account rule as a concrete account by a named adult who spoke to a journalist about his own case (depicted_or_impersonated): a sexualised AI image of a substitute teacher circulated among students, a student account impersonated him, a student admitted making it and was suspended in school, and he stopped working at the middle school and says he does not feel safe returning. The account rests on one reporting chain (WIRED, summarised by the local paper); the district did not respond, and the record says so. Students are minors and are not identified.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-01"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"WIRED describes the image as AI-generated and the teacher says it reworked an old mirror selfie of his to show him in lingerie; a student admitted creating it. The tool is not named and no technical assessment of the image is reported.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["depicted_or_impersonated"]},"name":"Los Banos, California: a substitute teacher says a sexualised AI image of him made from an old selfie circulated among middle-school students on TikTok and Snapchat and was used by a student account impersonating him; one student received in-school suspension and he stopped taking assignments at the middle school","summary":"WIRED (Caroline Haskins, 24 August 2026) reports the account of a substitute teacher in Los Banos, California, who spoke to WIRED by name (not repeated here). On 12 March 2026 a co-worker at his other job told him an AI photo was circulating on social media; the image reused a mirror selfie he had taken at a job in college but showed him in lingerie, posing suggestively. He traced an account sharing it on TikTok to a student at the middle school where he regularly substituted and reported it to the assistant principal; that evening he found a second account, created by a different student, impersonating him under a misspelled version of his name with the image as its profile picture. Over the following weeks he dealt with administrators, parents and the police; one student who admitted creating the image received an in-school suspension. He says the image was also shared on Snapchat, kept spreading among students and drew crude sexual comments on his TikTok account. He told administrators he would not take assignments at the middle school until the matter was addressed; at the local high school the same image was AirDropped to him during a class. WIRED says the district did not respond to its request for comment. He said he does not feel safe returning to the district. The Los Banos Enterprise (25 August 2026) summarised the WIRED account; no independent local reporting was found.","incidentDate":"2026-03-12","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"unknown","reportedDate":"2026-08-24","aiSystem":"Unidentified AI image tool used, according to WIRED and the teacher's account, to turn an old mirror selfie into a sexualised image of him in lingerie; the app is not named","aiProduct":"Unidentified image tool","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["psychological_distress","professional_harm","reputational_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"A sexualised AI image made from his old selfie circulated among students on TikTok and Snapchat, a student account impersonated him with it, he received crude sexual comments, and he stopped taking assignments at the middle school and says he does not feel safe returning to the district (the teacher's account to WIRED).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":1,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One teacher describes being depicted; WIRED's three other teacher accounts are separate incidents in other places and are not counted here. Exact count 1.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"US","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"internal_action","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.wired.com/story/teachers-deepfake-ai-students-content/","primarySourceLabel":"WIRED, 24 August 2026: They Dedicated Their Lives to Teaching. Then the Deepfakes Started (Caroline Haskins)","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-01T03:11:26.386118+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-01T03:11:26.386118+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["deepfake","sexualised-imagery","teacher","substitute-teacher","school","tiktok","snapchat","impersonation","harassment","california","los-banos","depicted-or-impersonated","first-person-via-journalist"]}]}