Apple to tighten macOS Full Disk Access controls over AI agent risks
Apple said on October 2 it will introduce new controls so macOS apps can only gain Full Disk Access through 'very explicit user action', warning that AI agents are making the risks of that permission 'substantially' greater.
Apple announced on October 2 that it will introduce additional controls around macOS Full Disk Access, the powerful permission that lets an app read files, mail, messages and browsing history (TechCrunch).
In a post titled “Updates to Full Disk Access in macOS” on its Developer News site, Apple said some developers are using the permission “in ways that could put users at risk… without users’ full knowledge and understanding” (TechCrunch). Going forward, users who genuinely wish to grant an app this level of access will be able to do so only with “very explicit user action”.
“As AI agents become increasingly capable and autonomous, the risks associated with this level of access will grow substantially,” Apple wrote (Unite.AI).
The move follows a report by Inc. columnist Jason Aten that Meta’s Muse AI agent had synced more than 187,000 rows of his private message history from the Mac’s local Messages database without his permission — a claim Meta disputes, saying Muse can only read Messages if a user switches on both the Full Disk Access permission and a Messages connector in the app (Startup Fortune). It also comes after Wired reported a flaw in OpenAI’s ChatGPT Mac app that could have let attackers access sensitive data; OpenAI has since pushed an emergency update (Startup Fortune).
Apple did not name any developer or app, and gave no macOS version or implementation date for the new controls (Unite.AI).
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