Meta Muse could read your private messages without permission, report finds

Date:
Wed, 23 Sep 2026 14:52:57 +0000

Description:
The Meta Muse AI agent was caught in another privacy firestorm when it
started reading private texts without permission.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Meta has launched a new
personal artificial intelligence (AI) agent called Muse , and it seems to be pretty powerful. A little too powerful , perhaps, as one writer has just revealed how the tool read his personal text messages without permission,
then lied about what it did when questioned.

As explained by Inc writer Jason Aten , I was having a conversation with my Primary Technology podcast co-host, Stephen Robles, about the new iPhones. Moments later, I got a push notification from Muse suggesting that the conversation we were having would make for a good column and offered to put together research for me to write about. It even flagged a message from my editor about having a column ready for Monday. The problem here is that not only had I not asked it to do that sort of thing, Aten stated, I never gave
it permission to read my messages. In fact, I remember explicitly choosing
not to let it have access to my messages, calendar, and other personal information. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here:

After Aten asked Muse how it knew about his messages, the AI agent flubbed that it grabbed the relevant info from push notifications relating to Atens texts, not from inside the messages themselves. The problem? Aten is sure thats not true.

The author discovered that Muse syncs your messages to Metas servers. On his device, this feature had been activated and synced to row 187,462 of my Messages database, Aten noted. Im not sure how many messages that equates to, but its obviously more than whatever Muse told me about what it was doing.
You may like Metas new AI agent demands serious trust Mark Zuckerberg's Muse personal AI agent is a work accessory designed by people who don't do real work Meta Muse already has a majorly worrying zero-day security issue

Meta says it designed Muse to be a safe, secure, private, and widely
available personal AI agent. But sending a users private messages to Metas servers then providing a misleading answer about what it was doing doesnt exactly align with Muses stated goals. It were to judge companies on their actions rather than their words then Meta doesnt come out of this smelling much like roses. A familiar pattern (Image credit: Meta) This is just the latest incident in a recent glut of bad press for Meta, with much of it centering on its AI efforts. For example, a security researcher discovered that Muse can be manipulated into sending your voice recordings and more to a hackers server, while Amazon has banned the AI agent from shopping on its website. And Meta is apparently considering using a human concierge system that would involve real people handling a percentage of the potentially sensitive phone calls that can be placed using Muse. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

And thats not forgetting the controversy over its pervert glasses that can record random members of the public without their consent. Metas smart
glasses have been used for harassment, stalking and more since they launched, garnering considerable hostile attention in the process.

I wish I could say that this was just a blip or an unexpected turn of events, but when it comes to Meta, privacy violations very much feel like the norm . Theyve happened so often in the past that its hard not to conclude that the functionality that allows its AI to browse and upload your messages without permission is there by design, not by accident.

And when were talking about a company that seems to feel it has an absolute right to all of your private data regardless of your wishes then its no wonder that I wouldnt touch Meta Muse with a bargepole. Ive tried plenty of
AI tools and services , but Muse is one that I just wont go near.

But lets be fair here: Muse is only the most egregious example of a worrying trend among AI agents to treat user privacy as an annoying afterthought , one that can be ignored as long as they can get away with it. You only need to look at the recent spate of AI security incidents to know that trusting an agent with your private data is a risky proposition.

Throw Meta into the mix and youve got a recipe for disaster, as Aten discovered. If youre running Muse on your devices right now, you might want
to consider what permissions youve granted it or think about uninstalling it completely. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. The best laptops for all budgets Our top picks, based on real-world testing and comparisons

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/meta-muse-read-a-writers-pri vate-messages-without-permission-and-its-exactly-why-im-not-ready-to-hand-my-l ife-over-to-ai-agents


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