Meta exec denies Muse AI assistant reads Mac notifications without permission

Meta's AI assistant Muse has come under scrutiny after a report claimed it accessed Mac notification content without explicit user authorization. Jason Aten, a contributing editor at Inc. magazine, said Muse was able to answer questions about his messages even though he had not granted it access to the Messages app on his Mac. When questioned, the assistant reportedly said it obtained the information from notification previews.

David Singleton, an executive at Meta Superintelligence Labs, responded to the claim by detailing the permissions required for Muse to read message content on macOS, including Full Disk Access. He said these features must be actively enabled by the user, and stressed that Muse does not monitor Mac notifications. According to Singleton, data is only collected from the Messages app after users explicitly grant access.

The two accounts of how Muse obtained the information differ significantly. Aten's conversation showed Muse saying it relied on notification previews, while Singleton denied that the assistant monitors notifications. The situation still requires further clarification.