Did Meta's Muse AI agent read a writer's texts? Both sides
“Okay so a writer says Meta's AI read his text messages... and Meta says no way. Yeah. You're gonna wanna hear this.”
The short version Inc. columnist Jason Aten says Meta's Muse AI agent synced about 187,000 lines of his Mac Messages after he said no. Meta denied it on September 30, 2026.
Okay so Inc. columnist Jason Aten says Meta's Muse AI agent read his private Mac text messages after he said no, and on September 30, 2026, TechCrunch reported that Meta flatly denies it.
What is Meta Muse?
Meta Muse is Meta's personal AI agent, launched in September 2026. It's an app that does tasks for you, and on a Mac it can connect to things like your Messages, if you give it permission.
What does Jason Aten say happened?
Jason Aten says he declined Messages access when he set up Muse on his Mac and had Full Disk Access turned off. Within about a day, he says, Muse was pitching him article ideas from texts he'd sent, and it had synced about 187,000 lines of his Messages database.
What does Meta say about Muse and Messages?
Meta says Muse can't read your Messages unless you turn on two things:
- macOS Full Disk Access
- the Muse Messages connector
Meta comms chief Andy Stone called the Messages integration "entirely opt-in," and Meta's David Singleton said macOS protections can't be bypassed even if the app had a bug.
Who's right?
Nobody has proven it either way. Right now it's Jason Aten's account against Meta's, and Meta hasn't publicly explained what Aten saw.
Bro. My texts are ninety percent memes. I still don't want an AI reading them.
Is Meta Muse safe to use?
Real talk: AI agents only work when they can see your stuff. That's the whole deal. Before you use Muse or any AI agent, check exactly which permissions and connectors you've switched on.
So don't panic. Just check what you said yes to. Like, now.
If you'd rather hear this stuff early than find out the hard way… follow. I got you.