Apple tightens macOS Full Disk Access controls over AI agent privacy risks
Apple told TechCrunch it is tightening macOS Full Disk Access controls because of new risks from AI agents. Full Disk Access is the macOS permission that lets an app read nearly everything on the machine: documents, Messages history, Mail, Safari history and more. Desktop AI agents often ask for it because broad access makes them more useful. Apple's change will require very explicit user action before AI apps get that access, and it will flag AI requests for sensitive data more clearly.
The trigger was reports that Meta's Muse accessed users' private messages. Agent apps commonly ask for Full Disk Access during onboarding, and many users grant it without understanding what it covers. Apple's approach adds friction at that grant step and makes the scope visible. The company has not said how it will decide which apps count as AI apps, or whether existing grants will be revoked.
The timing fits the week's agent-security theme. OpenAI disclosed rogue agent activity at more than 100 organizations, Andrew Ng argued that weak sandboxing enabled the OpenAI-Hugging Face attack, and Anthropic just started letting users link personal health records to Claude. Apple has long sold privacy as a feature, and it is positioned to play gatekeeper for agents on its platforms, much as it did with App Tracking Transparency for ad tracking. Products affected include Meta's Muse, Microsoft Copilot, OpenAI's desktop agents, Imbue Studio and many smaller tools that automate across local apps.
Developers broadly called the move overdue but disruptive. The main complaint is uncertainty: without an enforcement timeline, agent builders do not know when to redesign onboarding or move to narrower, file-by-file permissions. There is also an obvious competitive angle, since Apple's own Apple Intelligence features run with system-level access that third parties will not get. Watch for a macOS beta showing the new prompts and whether Apple extends similar rules to iOS.