🔍 Read the full analysis: Your Guide To Meta’s AI Agent And Message Visibility on ThorstenMeyerAI.com
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TL;DR
Meta’s Muse personal AI agent can access information through connected services, including some messages, when its user grants or receives access to those connectors. Reports by WIRED and TIME say Muse’s instructions include maintaining profiles of people mentioned in users’ communications; Meta did not dispute the reported findings and says users control their agents. Non-users have limited direct control, and the exact reach of several connectors and deletion controls remains unclear.
Meta announced Muse’s expansion to Singapore on October 27, as reports about the personal AI agent’s access to connected messages and its retention of information about people who never signed up drew fresh attention to privacy controls. WIRED and TIME reported that Muse’s instructions include maintaining profiles of people in its user’s life; Meta did not dispute TIME’s account and said each user decides how much access the agent receives.
Muse is a cloud-based assistant that can carry out tasks such as answering email, booking tables and shopping. Meta launched it in the United States on September 8, then expanded to Japan on October 23 and Singapore on October 27, according to the source material. Meta describes each user’s setup as a private virtual computer, called a Muse Secure VM, that other users’ agents cannot access.
The agent’s access depends on connectors linking it to other services. Meta’s help pages say email access lets Muse search an inbox but does not download the entire inbox unless the user asks. The same pages say Facebook, Instagram and Threads accounts can connect automatically when they share an Accounts Center with Muse. Meta chief AI officer Alexandr Wang said the Instagram connector includes direct messages and that Muse has a Messenger connector, although the published help information does not detail the scope of those message connections.
Mac Messages access requires the user to grant macOS Full Disk Access and turn on the connector, Meta says. Custom connectors can also link Muse to other services, but Meta warns it does not review them. The source material says Muse can be opened as a chat in WhatsApp; it does not mean the agent automatically reads a user’s other WhatsApp conversations.
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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Why Message Access Affects Non-Users
The privacy issue extends beyond the person who installs Muse because messages are usually conversations between people. If an agent can search communications available to its user, information about friends, relatives, colleagues and other contacts may be processed even when those people have never used the product. Their words can become part of an agent’s summaries or remembered context.
That creates an imbalance in control: the Muse user chooses the connectors, while people whose messages appear in the connected accounts may not have an equivalent way to opt out of that processing. The practical reach depends on the account, connector and task, and should not be assumed to cover every message in every service.
The commercial stakes are also relevant. The source reports that Meta sold $25 billion in stock at $625 a share and $12.5 billion in preferred stock, with Nvidia investing $3 billion. It says Meta plans to deploy Nvidia chips for Muse. Those financing details do not establish how Muse handles data, but they place the product’s expansion alongside a substantial investment in the infrastructure supporting it.
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How Muse Connects to Accounts
Meta presents Muse as an agent that can act across services rather than only answer questions in a chat. Its access is mediated by connectors, but the source material distinguishes between information in Meta’s own documentation and claims made by an executive. Email and calendar connectors are described in Meta help materials; automatic linking of Facebook, Instagram and Threads is tied to a shared Accounts Center. The reported Messenger and Instagram direct-message capabilities were described by Wang, while their precise data scope was not laid out in the cited help pages.
Privacy concerns grew after WIRED reported on October 3 that a security researcher, Karan Joshi, obtained internal Muse instructions by asking the agent in a chat. The report said Muse was instructed to create a page for each person in its user’s life. TIME reviewed instructions separately three days later and reported that files are refreshed hourly and can cover people mentioned in chats, messages and emails. TIME also reported that the system shares de-identified lessons across agents. These are media accounts of the instructions, not a complete public description of how the system behaves in every case.
Meta’s policy, as quoted in the source, says Muse may store “information about you or others.” The source also says Muse has controls for disconnecting connectors, switching off model training, editing its memory file and resetting the agent. Meta’s help materials caution that asking Muse to forget something does not guarantee that all information derived from it is removed.
“They’re trying to know you like a friend, which is honestly pretty creepy.”
— Karan Joshi, security researcher, quoted by WIRED
The Limits of Muse’s Data Controls
Several details remain unresolved. Meta’s public help pages, as described in the source, do not fully specify which messages the Instagram and Messenger connectors can access, when information is read, or how long derived details remain available. The source says connectors may share data proactively under some circumstances, but does not establish how often that happens or which data types are involved.
The reported profile instructions describe what Muse was told to do, but the source does not independently establish how completely or consistently the agent follows them in normal use. Meta did not dispute TIME’s findings, yet its response did not answer each question about retention, non-user access or the hourly refresh process. The source also ends its quotation of Meta’s deletion guidance mid-sentence, so the full wording and its qualifications are not available here.
It is also unclear what recourse people who are not Muse users have when their information appears in another person’s connected accounts. The material mentions WhatsApp’s Advanced Chat Privacy as one way to reduce content entering other people’s archives, but does not show that it applies across Meta services or removes information already processed.
What Users and Meta May Clarify
People using Muse can review connected services, disconnect connectors they do not want active, change the model-training setting, inspect or edit the memory file, and reset the agent, according to the source. Those steps affect the user’s own Muse setup; they do not necessarily remove copies or summaries held in another user’s agent. People who do not use Muse may have fewer direct controls and can consider privacy settings in the services where their messages are shared.
The next useful development would be clearer documentation from Meta on exactly what Instagram and Messenger connectors can read, when connector data is sent, how long information about non-users is retained, and what deletion or correction options exist for them. The source gives no date for such disclosures or for a further Muse expansion beyond Singapore. Until Meta provides more detail, the reported behavior and the limits of its controls remain matters readers should distinguish from the company’s stated assurances.
Key Questions
Can Muse read messages from people who never signed up?
It may process messages available through a Muse user’s connected accounts. WIRED and TIME reported that Muse’s instructions cover people mentioned in users’ communications. The exact scope of each connector is not fully documented in the source.
Does opening Muse in WhatsApp give it access to all WhatsApp chats?
Not according to the source material. It describes Muse in WhatsApp as a chat the user opens, not as an automatic reader of the person’s other WhatsApp conversations.
What controls can a Muse user change?
The source lists options to disconnect connectors, turn off model training, edit the memory file or reset Muse. The precise effects of each option, particularly on information already processed, are not fully described.
Does telling Muse to forget something delete it?
Not necessarily. The source quotes Meta’s help information as saying Muse forgets information “to the best of its ability” and may still remember details it learned from deleted material.
Where is Muse available?
The source says Meta launched Muse in the United States on September 8, expanded to Japan on October 23 and announced Singapore on October 27, 2026.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
