Apple Tightens Full Disk Access to Rein In AI Agents, and Meta Isn't Happy

Apple is changing how its Full Disk Access permission works, a move aimed at curbing abuse by AI agents that want broad reach into a user's data. The change has already drawn a public disagreement with Meta over what the permission is supposed to allow.

Full Disk Access, or FDA, is the macOS setting that lets an app read protected areas of a computer that are normally off limits. It has long been used by backup tools, security software and developer utilities. As AI agents that act on a person's behalf have spread, the same switch has become an easy way for them to see far more than users may realize.

Meta's position is that FDA on its own is not sufficient for its Muse assistant to read a user's messages. In other words, the company says the permission as Apple defines it does not cover what Muse needs to do. Apple disagrees, and the two companies are now publicly at odds over where the boundary sits.

The dispute points to a larger tension. AI agents are most useful when they can see email, chats, files and system activity. Platform owners, meanwhile, are under pressure to make sure that kind of access is deliberate, visible and revocable. A single all-or-nothing toggle is a blunt tool for that job, and Apple's adjustment suggests it agrees the old model was too permissive for agent-style software.

For users, the practical effect is likely to be more friction. Apps that lean on FDA to reach messages or other private data may need to ask for narrower, more specific permissions instead, or may lose access they previously relied on. Developers building agents for macOS should expect to revisit how they request access and how they explain it to people.

Apple has long framed its privacy controls as a selling point, and messages are among the most sensitive data on any device. Meta, which has its own reasons to want its assistant deeply integrated into daily communication, is pushing back on the idea that the existing permission is the right gate. How the two sides resolve this, or whether Apple simply holds its line, will shape how much room third-party AI assistants get on the Mac.