{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-05T06:38:05.760Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"macos","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":0,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":1,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":1,"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"]}]}