Apple Makes It Tougher for AI Agents to Access Macs

In a Friday (Oct. 2) blog post, the company noted that Macs feature a “Full Disk Access” option that lets apps access all the data on a machine, with a user’s consent.

However, 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,” the post said.

“For communication apps, this can also compromise the privacy of the people users are communicating with.”

With that in mind, Apple plans to establish new controls to make sure users who want to allow this “extraordinary level of access” can 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,” the blog post added. “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.”

A report on the change by Reuters points out that it comes after Inc magazine technology columnist Jason Aten accused Meta’s Muse AI agent of reading private messages on his Mac, and that he had not enabled Full Disk Access.