Apple plans tighter Mac permissions as AI agents spread
Apple promises clearer approval for Full Disk Access. It has not announced a release date or linked the change to any named app.
Apple plans to make it harder for Mac apps to obtain Full Disk Access, citing the growing reach of AI agents. In an October 2 developer announcement, the company said additional controls would require "very explicit user action" before granting that permission. It gave no release date or macOS version.
Full Disk Access is a broad permission. Apple says it exists so backup software can work across protected data, but developers also use it in ways that can expose files, mail, messages and browsing history. With messaging apps, the exposure includes information about people who never installed the agent themselves.
Apple did not name an offending app. That distinction matters amid the dispute over Meta's Muse agent: the announcement does not establish that Muse bypassed macOS protections, or that Apple made the change in response to it.
In his first-person account for Inc., columnist Jason Aten said Muse used private conversations to suggest article ideas despite his recollection that he had declined Messages access. He said the app had synced through row 187,462 of his Messages database. That is a database row number, not a verified count of messages.
Aten also wrote that Muse's settings showed Full Disk Access disabled when he checked. His account documents what he observed, but does not establish the system's permission state at the earlier moment when the sync occurred.
Meta disputes unauthorized access. The company says both Full Disk Access and its Messages connector must be enabled, TechCrunch reported. The available accounts do not settle how those settings came to differ from what Aten expected.
The permission is common beyond AI software. MacStories reported finding it enabled on one Mac for Alfred, PopClip, Hazel, Setapp, Pixelmator Pro, TestFlight and an Apple Arcade game. That single-machine check is not a survey of Mac users. It does show why a change to this permission could reach well beyond agents and backup utilities.
For developers, the missing details are practical. Apple has not said whether existing permissions will be revoked, whether apps must ask again, or what the revised approval process will look like. Until those rules arrive, the announcement is a commitment to change the controls, not a description of protections already shipping.