Apple has announced that it is working on changes to the way Full Disk Access is granted and controlled in macOS in response to the growing popularity of AI agents on the Mac platform.
While chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and even the New Siri AI remain the most popular way of interacting with AI, more and more curious users are installing and trying out agentic AI software on their Macs. While chatbots can answer questions and generate text, images, and video, agentic AI apps take things further through the ability to use a computer in order to carry out more complex tasks on your behalf.
The open source app OpenClaw was the first AI agent to gain popularity, but it wasn’t until Meta released its free Muse agent that things really took off into the mainstream. Muse has been downloaded millions of times and at the time of this writing remains the top free app in the iOS App Store. Muse gives you access to an AI agent with a full cloud-based Linux computer at its disposal, allowing it to browse the web, make purchases, and other things.
But the Muse app for Mac—notably not available on the Mac App Store and instead must be downloaded directly from the Meta website—extends Muse’s capability by also allowing it to access your Mac. This allows Muse to work inside your Mac, access your files and perform tasks directly on your Mac.
To do all of this, Muse obviously requires quite a bit of access, which is where Apple’s announcement to Full Disk Access comes in. For those who understand what granting Full Disk Access on a Mac means, granting such access to an app made by — of all companies — Meta, likely sounds like a terrible idea. But there are lots of Mac users out there who don’t fully understand what they’re agreeing to. Here’s what Apple has to say in its announcement:
“We give developers powerful APIs to build incredible capabilities into their apps for Apple products, backed by a set of controls designed to protect users’ private data. Full Disk Access largely sidesteps these controls in order to allow backup apps to function properly on the Mac,” the announcement reads.
However, as Apple notes, granting Full Disk Access to the wrong app could have disastrous results:
“Some developers are using Full Disk Access in ways that could put users at risk, exposing everything on their systems—including files, mail, messages, and even browsing history—without users’ full knowledge and understanding. For communication apps, this can also compromise the privacy of the people users are communicating with.”
For an example of this, look no further than this horror story from tech columnist Jason Aten. Aten installed Muse with as much caution as one could exercise, installing it to a dedicated Mac and choosing not to grant the application access to his “messages, calendar, and other personal information.” And yet, not long after installing the app to his Mac, Aten’s Muse agent began prompting him with potential tasks based on a text message conversation he was currently having. Aten says he is still unsure how Muse got access to his messages.
In fact, Apple specifically calls out AI agents as the main reason they plan on tightening up Full Disk Access controls.
“Going forward, we will introduce additional controls to ensure that users who genuinely wish to grant an app this extraordinary level of access can only do so with very explicit user action. Addressing this is critical. As AI agents become increasingly capable and autonomous, the risks associated with this level of access will grow substantially. We are committed to ensuring users clearly understand these risks before granting such access, so they can make informed decisions about their own data and privacy.”
Apple hasn’t yet announced what these changes will look like, but hopefully this doesn’t mean Full Disk Access is going away entirely. We’ll keep you updated.
