🔍 Read the full analysis: Don’t Use Muse? Learn What Meta’s AI Agent Can Still See on ThorstenMeyerAI.com
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TL;DR
Meta’s Muse personal AI agent can access information through accounts and services its user connects, including some Meta apps and, with permission, email and Mac Messages. WIRED and TIME reported that Muse’s instructions direct it to maintain and update profiles of people mentioned in a user’s communications, including people who never signed up; Meta did not dispute the findings. The extent of access depends on a user’s settings, and Meta’s own guidance says deleting information may not remove what Muse has already learned.
Meta’s Muse personal AI agent can draw on communications and accounts its user connects, and reports by WIRED and TIME say its internal instructions tell it to keep profiles of people mentioned in those communications, including people who have never used Muse. Meta did not dispute the reports’ findings, but says each user controls the information their agent can access—leaving non-users with limited control over what other people’s agents may retain about them.
Muse is a cloud-based agent that can perform tasks such as answering email, booking tables and shopping, as described in this guide to understanding Meta’s Muse AI. Its access comes through connectors linking it to other services. Meta’s help information says connecting email lets Muse search messages but does not download an entire inbox unless the user asks. Calendar connectors may send updates to Muse automatically. Meta also says Facebook, Instagram and Threads accounts can connect automatically when they share an Accounts Center with Muse.
Meta chief AI officer Alexandr Wang said the available connectors include Instagram direct messages and Messenger, features discussed in this explanation of Muse Spark’s launch. Meta’s help pages do not spell out the full scope of those connections. Access to Mac Messages requires the user to grant macOS Full Disk Access and enable the connector. Meta warns that it does not review custom connectors, which Muse can create for services with a software interface.
WIRED reported on files obtained by security researcher Karan Joshi, and TIME later reviewed Muse instructions separately. The reports describe instructions to create a page for each person in the user’s life and refresh information hourly. TIME said the files cover people named in chats, messages and emails, including details such as shared interests and disputes. Meta did not dispute the reporting. A Meta spokesperson said each person controls their own Muse and decides how much access it receives.
Infographic 01 · What Muse can read
Muse reads what its user can read. That includes you.
Connectors decide what the agent sees. The user switches them on. The people in that user’s chats and inbox are never asked.
Sources a Muse user can open to the agent
The agent reads what its user can read. Everyone who writes to that user is inside.
| Source | How it connects | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Email (Gmail, Outlook) | Opt-in connector. Searches when a task needs it; downloads the whole inbox only if told to. | Meta document |
| Calendar | Opt-in connector. Can push changes to Muse on its own (“proactive”). | Meta document |
| Facebook, Instagram, Threads | Connected automatically if the accounts share an Accounts Center with Muse. | Meta document |
| Instagram DMs, Messenger | Named as Muse-only connectors (“Instagram (incl dm’s) … and Messenger”). What they read is not documented. | executive post |
| Mac Messages (iMessage) | Only with macOS Full Disk Access plus the Messages connector, Meta says. One columnist says it synced anyway. | disputed case |
| A place to chat with Muse, not a connector. Test-build text mentions Muse access to end-to-end encrypted chats. | leaked code | |
| Custom connectors | Muse can build links to other services. Meta does not review them. | Meta document |
What the instructions say
Extracted by researchers; reported by WIRED and TIME reported
- “A page for every person in the user’s life”: family, partners, friends, colleagues, people followed
- Notes on how people met, shared interests, disputes, “tensions and alliances”
- People who never signed up are mapped by other users’ agents
- De-identified “lessons” shared across agents; Meta did not dispute TIME’s findings
What Meta says
Privacy policy, help pages, spokespeople Meta document
- Each user’s VM is isolated; no other user’s agent can reach it
- Conversations and VM data are not shared with Meta’s ad systems
- “Each person stays in control of their Muse and decides how much access it gets”
- Forgetting works “to the best of its ability”; deleted data may still be remembered
Sources: Meta Help Center: Connectors; Muse Privacy Policy; Alexandr Wang on X (8 Sep 2026); TIME (6 Oct 2026); Tom’s Guide on WIRED’s report (6 Oct 2026); TechCrunch (30 Sep 2026); Digit (16 Oct 2026). Status labels: Meta document = stated by Meta; executive post = Meta executive on X, not in help pages; disputed = claim and denial on record; leaked = unreleased code, may never ship.
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Other People’s Messages, Muse’s Memory
The privacy issue extends beyond whether someone chooses to install Muse. When a user connects accounts or asks the agent to process communications, those messages may contain details about friends, relatives, colleagues and other contacts. The reports suggest Muse may organize some of that material into persistent profiles. That means people who did not consent to use the agent may still be described in information it handles for someone else.
The practical exposure depends on the user’s connections, permissions and requests; the source material does not establish that Muse has unrestricted access to every user’s inbox or every conversation. Still, the difference between access to a service and ongoing retention matters. A message shared in a private conversation may become input to an assistant’s summaries and memory, even if the person discussed has no Muse account or direct way to inspect that record.
There is also a business dimension. The source reports that Meta sold $25 billion in stock at $625 a share, alongside $12.5 billion in preferred stock, and that Nvidia is investing $3 billion as the companies expand their work. Meta is deploying Nvidia chips for Muse. The financing does not establish how Muse handles any particular person’s data, but it underscores the commercial scale of the product and the importance of clear rules for access, retention and deletion.
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Muse’s Rollout and Data Connections
Meta launched Muse in the United States on September 8, 2026, describing it as a personal AI agent that operates on a computer in the cloud. The company says each user receives a private “Muse Secure VM,” which other users’ agents cannot access. Japan followed on October 23, and Meta announced Singapore on October 27, its first market outside North America, according to the source material. TIME reported more than five million downloads within weeks of launch; that figure is a reported download count, not a measure of active users.
Users can interact with Muse in its app, on a Mac or through a chat opened in WhatsApp. The source says the WhatsApp option is a conversation with Muse, not permission for it to read a user’s other WhatsApp chats. Separate connectors determine whether Muse can reach other services. Meta’s privacy policy, as described in the source, also refers to information shared proactively by connectors and data about “you or others.”
Meta provides user-side controls, including disconnecting connectors, turning off model training, editing a memory file and resetting Muse. Model training is described as on by default in the source material. Meta’s help guidance says Muse may forget information “to the best of its ability,” but may still remember information learned from material a user deleted. The controls therefore do not necessarily amount to removing every derived detail.
“They’re trying to know you like a friend, which is honestly pretty creepy.”
— Karan Joshi, security researcher, quoted by WIRED
Retention Rules Still Need Detail
The reporting describes Muse’s instructions and files, but the source material does not establish how often profiles are created in ordinary use, what exact information is retained for each person, or how long those records persist. It also does not provide a complete account of how the profiles or reported de-identified lessons are used, or whether they affect responses to later users.
Meta did not dispute TIME’s findings, according to the source, but its statement did not directly answer those questions. The available help-page descriptions also do not specify the precise scope of every Meta-app connector. The supplied quotation about deletion is incomplete, so its full terms and any limits on retention cannot be confirmed from the material provided.
Nor does the source establish that Muse can independently open every message belonging to a person who has not signed up. The reported mechanism is that an agent may process information available to its own user. That distinction matters: the privacy concern is about information shared with a Muse user and potentially retained or summarized by that user’s agent, not proof of direct access to non-users’ accounts.
Check Connections and Retention Controls
Muse users can review connected services, remove connectors they do not need, examine the memory file, and change model-training or reset settings through Meta’s controls. Users should check account-sharing settings as well as connectors they enabled themselves, because the source says some Meta services may connect automatically through a shared Accounts Center. The source also points to WhatsApp’s Advanced Chat Privacy as one way to reduce what may be retained in other people’s archives, though it does not describe that setting as a complete block on all copying or recall.
For people who do not use Muse, the immediate choices described in the source are narrower and relate to limiting what is shared with other users. Further clarity would depend on Meta publishing fuller information about connector scope, profile creation, retention periods, deletion of derived memories and options for people mentioned in an agent’s records. No such additional disclosure or change is confirmed in the supplied material.
Key Questions
Can Muse read messages from people who never signed up?
The reports describe Muse processing messages available to its user and creating profiles of people mentioned in them. That is not the same as evidence that Muse can access a non-user’s own accounts or messages directly.
What accounts can a Muse user connect?
Meta lists email, calendar and Mac Messages connectors, alongside its own services. Facebook, Instagram and Threads may connect automatically through a shared Accounts Center. Meta’s chief AI officer said Instagram DMs and Messenger are included, although the help pages cited do not give the full scope of those connectors.
Does deleting a message erase what Muse learned from it?
Not necessarily. Meta’s help guidance, as reported in the source material, says Muse may still remember information learned from deleted material. The source does not provide the complete wording or a detailed account of how long such information can remain.
How can a Muse user limit what the agent can access?
Users can disconnect connectors, review or edit Muse’s memory file, change model-training settings and reset the agent. They should also check whether Meta accounts share an Accounts Center, since the source says that can connect services automatically.
Can someone who does not use Muse remove a profile about them?
The source material describes no direct non-user control for inspecting or deleting a Muse profile created through another person’s agent. Meta’s stated control applies to the person using Muse. More information about non-user requests and deletion is not provided.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
