Meta’s Muse AI Assistant Draws Privacy Concerns Over Data From Contacts

Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation, told The Verge that these systems are advertised as autonomous helpers, genies or servants that do what users need before they ask. She said those autonomous actions apply not only to the person who installed Muse but also to everyone that person communicates with, as extrapolated from intimate information including emails, messages, contacts and photos.

Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts told The Verge that any agent needs context about the user and the people they interact with to be useful. He said Muse gathers that from public information and from what users choose to share, citing examples such as remembering that a person who sent an invoice is the plumber previously hired for bathroom work, or which flowers a spouse said they liked best. Roberts pointed to Muse's opt-in process and options and settings that he said help people make the privacy choices that are right for them.

Users have described incidents that The Verge called alarming and predictable. Some reported that the assistant grabbed millions of text messages they believed were off limits. Meta disputed that Muse can access text messages without permission, attributing the incident to misconfigured app permissions and describing Muse's ability to read text messages as entirely opt-in. On Threads, Meta executive David Singleton said that on a Mac, Muse can only gain access to messages if the user grants the app full disk access.

In another incident, Muse gave out a tech reviewer's home address and summoned a stranger to his apartment. The reviewer had given Muse permission to access that data but did not realize it, according to The Verge.

Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told The Verge that people do not understand what kind of data they are handing over. She said the user interface is set up to encourage sharing as much as possible, often more than users realize, until it is too late, and that dark patterns lead to Muse doing things people do not want.

Because AI agents like Muse ingest such a broad range of data, users risk leaking not only their own sensitive information but also the information of everyone with whom they have had digital contact. The Verge noted that, as with Meta's 'pervert glasses,' there is no meaningful way to opt out even if a person constantly monitors for signs that data is compromised or privacy is being violated.