Musk amplifies Muse privacy backlash after address leak

Muse is Meta's attempt to put a personal AI agent at the center of a user's digital life, with capabilities spanning shopping, connected apps, and task completion. In an earlier blog post, Meta said it built Muse from the ground up to be safe, secure, private, and widely available.

The latest episode is not happening in isolation, since the backlash also comes at a time when reports about AI agents from OpenAI, Anthropic and Alphabet's Google going rogue have heightened concerns. That broader context appears to be part of why a single account, shared by Ray Wong and reposted by Elon Musk, drew so much attention. Meta Superintelligence Labs executive David Singleton responded by pointing to the multiple application and system-level permission steps required before Muse can access Messages content, saying those protections are designed to prevent Muse from bypassing permissions even if the application itself contains a bug.

Whether that explanation settles the matter may hinge on how Meta answers the questions raised by the account and by an Inc. report titled "Meta's New Muse AI Agent Read My Private Messages. I Never Asked It To." For users who rely on agents to handle messages and marketplace tasks, the stakes are whether permission controls hold up in real use rather than in design descriptions, and Meta did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comment.