Apple said on 2 October that it will add new controls to Full Disk Access, the macOS permission that lets an app read almost everything on a Mac, after warning that the risk of that access being abused will grow substantially as AI agents advance. In a statement reported by TechCrunch, the company said some developers were using the permission "in ways that could put users at risk, exposing everything on their systems, including files, mail, messages, and even browsing history, without users' full knowledge and understanding."
Apple did not give a release date, and did not name a macOS version. Its position, per the same statement, is that the stakes are rising fast: "As AI agents become increasingly capable and autonomous, the risks associated with this level of access will grow substantially." The change, as MacRumors describes it, is meant to make sure anyone who genuinely wants to hand an app that level of access can only do so through "very explicit user action."
The dispute in the background
Apple did not name a cause. Its announcement followed a public dispute over Meta's Muse, one of a new wave of always-on AI assistants, after the journalist Jason Aten said the agent had been quietly reading his private iMessages on his Mac. Meta contests that account: its communications head Andy Stone says the Messages integration is entirely opt-in and needs both Full Disk Access and a Messages connector turned on, and a Meta executive, David Singleton, says the access sits behind separate app-level and macOS system-level steps, including a manual confirmation in macOS settings, which Meta says a bug could not get around. The accounts conflict, but the episode put the focus on Full Disk Access itself, which hands an app a great deal of reach in a single grant.
That is the real issue. Full Disk Access was built for software with an honest reason to see the whole drive, such as backup apps, which is how Apple describes its purpose. An AI agent granted the same permission can, in principle, read the same files.
Why this reaches Malaysia
The local angle is less about how many Macs sit in Malaysia than about how quickly these agents are arriving on them. That interest is on the record in our own earlier reporting: we have covered Malaysia's MyGOV portal testing an agentic AI assistant, AI agents being paused abroad over safety even as Malaysian teams pilot their own, and Malaysia drafting a binding AI law as global vendors sign a voluntary accord. Anyone here who installs one of these agents on a Mac faces the same Full Disk Access choice the rest of the world now does.
The practical takeaway does not need to wait for Apple's update. On a recent Mac, running macOS 13 or later, Full Disk Access sits in System Settings under Privacy and Security, where Apple lists the apps that have requested it (older versions keep it under System Preferences, then Security and Privacy). It is worth opening that list, and removing anything you do not recognise or no longer use, before you grant it to the next agent that asks.
Apple has not said when the new controls ship, or whether they will reach older macOS versions. Until they do, the clearest control you already hold over what an app can reach is that settings panel, alongside the separate app-level permissions some agents still require.
Image(s) courtesy of Ales Nesetril on Unsplash.
