🔍 Read the full analysis: Don’t Use Muse? Meta’s AI Agent May Still Have Message Access on ThorstenMeyerAI.com
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TL;DR
Reports by WIRED and TIME say Meta’s Muse agent is instructed to maintain profiles of people who appear in a user’s messages, emails and chats, including people who never signed up. Meta says Muse users control the agent’s access, but nonusers have limited ways to affect information held in someone else’s account. Meta’s disclosures also describe app connectors and say deleted information may still be remembered.
Meta’s Muse AI agent may build profiles of people who never signed up by processing information in a user’s connected messages and emails, according to separate reports by WIRED and TIME. The reports, which Meta did not dispute, raise questions about what happens to communications involving nonusers as Meta expands Muse to Singapore and promotes access to personal apps.
Muse is a personal AI agent that can perform tasks for a user through a cloud-based virtual computer. Meta says it can connect to services including email, calendars, Mac Messages and Meta’s own apps. Its help pages say Facebook, Instagram and Threads connect automatically when the accounts share an Accounts Center with Muse. Email access allows searches, Meta says, but does not download an entire inbox unless the user asks it to.
Meta chief AI officer Alexandr Wang said Muse has connectors for Instagram, including direct messages, as well as Facebook, Threads and Messenger. The exact scope of those connectors is not fully documented on Meta’s help pages. Access to Apple’s Mac Messages requires the user to grant macOS Full Disk Access and enable the connector, according to Meta. The company also warns that it does not review custom connectors users create.
WIRED reported on instructions found in Muse files obtained by security researcher Karan Joshi. The instructions tell Muse to create “a page for every person in the user’s life.” TIME later reviewed the instructions separately and reported that Muse updates files hourly, including profiles of people mentioned in chats, messages and emails. Meta did not dispute the reports. A company spokesperson said, “Each person stays in control of their Muse and decides how much access it gets.”
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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When Someone Else Connects Their Messages
The reported system creates a privacy issue beyond the person who installs Muse. A user may authorize access to conversations that include family members, colleagues, friends or other contacts who have not agreed to use the agent. If Muse processes those communications to maintain profiles, those people may be represented in a system they do not control.
That does not establish that Muse can independently open every person’s messages or access another user’s account. Its reach depends on what a Muse user connects and what information appears in sources the agent can read. Still, the distinction matters: the account holder controls the connection, while other people in the resulting communications may have few direct controls over how their information is handled.
Meta’s own policy and help information also complicate the idea that removing a message or asking Muse to forget something will erase all traces. The company says Muse may retain learned information after deletion. That makes the agent’s memory settings and deletion practices relevant not only to users, but to people whose details appear in their records.
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Muse’s Connectors and Expansion
Meta launched Muse in the United States on September 8, 2026, and introduced it in Japan on October 23. The company announced Singapore as its next market on October 27, its first expansion beyond North America and Japan, according to the source material. Meta describes Muse as a personal agent that can answer email, book tables and shop. It says each user receives a “Muse Secure VM,” a private virtual computer that other users’ agents cannot reach.
That private environment does not settle what happens to information about other people within a user’s own connected data. Muse’s privacy policy says it can collect messages, connector data and “information about you or others.” Meta’s pages describe both user-requested access and connectors that may share data proactively. The product can also be used in WhatsApp as a chat a person opens, rather than as a reader of that person’s other WhatsApp chats, according to Meta’s description.
The reports about profiling came before the Singapore announcement. TIME reported more than five million downloads within weeks of launch; that figure is TIME’s reported count, not a measure of active users. The source material also says Meta sold $25 billion in stock at $625 a share and $12.5 billion in preferred stock, with Nvidia investing $3 billion. Nvidia supplies chips Meta plans to deploy for Muse. Those financial details show the scale of the companies’ partnership, but do not by themselves establish how Muse handles individual data.
“Muse has connectors like Instagram (incl dm’s), Threads, Facebook (incl marketplace), and Messenger.”
— Meta chief AI officer Alexandr Wang, in a post on X
What Muse Retains and Reads
Several details remain unresolved. Meta’s public help pages do not spell out exactly what Instagram direct-message and Messenger data the connectors can access, or how often each type of connected information is read. The reports describe hourly updates to profiles, but the available material does not establish how widely the reported instructions are applied across users or whether every account follows the same behavior.
It is also unclear how long profiles of nonusers are retained, whether they are used for purposes beyond the individual user’s agent, and what controls people have to correct or remove information about themselves from another person’s Muse. TIME reported that agents share de-identified “lessons” across the system; details about what those lessons contain and how de-identification works are not provided here. Meta’s statement that users control access does not answer these specific questions.
Meta’s help information says Muse may still remember information it learned after a user deletes the source, and describes forgetting as something it does “to the best of its ability.” That wording does not promise that a deletion request erases all derived information. The precise limits and retention periods remain unclear from the material available.
Controls as Singapore Launches
As Muse becomes available in Singapore, users can review which connectors they have enabled, disconnect services they do not want Muse to access, and check Meta’s memory and training controls. Meta’s help pages also describe editing Muse’s memory file and resetting the agent. Model training is described as on by default in the source material, so users concerned about that use should check the setting in their account.
People who do not use Muse have fewer direct options because they cannot manage another person’s connected account. The source material points to WhatsApp’s Advanced Chat Privacy as one way to limit what can be exported from a chat, though that does not remove information already held in another person’s messages or other connected services. Further clarification from Meta about connector scope, retention, profile deletion and nonuser controls would help establish how the reported system operates in practice.
Key Questions
Can Muse read messages from someone who never signed up?
It may process information about a nonuser when that information appears in communications a Muse user has connected. The reports describe profiles built from people named in chats, messages and emails. This is not the same as Muse independently accessing the nonuser’s account.
Which services can Muse connect to?
Meta lists email, calendars, Mac Messages and its own apps. Facebook, Instagram and Threads may connect automatically when they share an Accounts Center with Muse. Alexandr Wang also named Instagram direct messages and Messenger, though Meta’s public help pages do not fully document those connectors’ scope.
Does deleting a message remove what Muse learned from it?
Not necessarily. Meta’s help information says Muse may still remember information learned from deleted material and describes forgetting as best-effort. The available details do not specify exactly how long derived information remains.
What can a person who does not use Muse do?
A nonuser has limited control over information in someone else’s connected account. The source material cites WhatsApp’s Advanced Chat Privacy as a way to reduce what can be exported from a chat, but it does not erase information already present in another person’s records.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
