Apple to begin limiting Mac drive access for developers due to risk of AI agents
- Full disk access was introduced for system-wide backups, but AI Agent has introduced a new threat
- Apple has confirmed that it will “introduce[ing] additional controls” to protect sensitive data
- It is not known when the changes could take effect; no sign yet for macOS 27.2
Apple has announced plans to give users more control over Full Disk Access settings in macOS in a bid to prevent agent AI from gaining too much access to unwarranted information.
Typically, giving an app full disk access would allow it to bypass many of macOS’s privacy protections, including files and documents, emails, messages, browser history, and other data.
It was largely introduced to support system-wide backups, which really needed access to all that data; However, with the rise of agent AI, Apple has been forced to adjust it.
Latest videos ofTechnologyRadar
Apple makes major change to full disk access due to AI
“Some developers are using Full Disk Access in ways that could put users at risk, exposing everything on their systems,” the company said in an Oct. 2 announcement.
“We will introduce additional controls to ensure that users who really want to grant an application this extraordinary level of access can only do so with a very explicit user action.”
The company specifically called out AI agents for driving this change, referring to it as a critical measure in terms of security.
Crucially, Apple has not yet updated the interface and options for full disk access; However, it is likely that an upcoming version of macOS will include such changes. Currently, there is no indication that the changes will be included in the beta version of the upcoming macOS 27.2; However, both Beta 1 and Beta 2 predate the October announcement, so there is always the possibility that future beta versions or the full version will include the change.
The change was likely prompted by a recent report that Meta’s Muse AI agent had accessed a user’s messages; However, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone emphasized in an X post that both full disk access and the message connector are “completely optional” for each user.
Still, Apple’s current full disk access setup is very broad, so more granular controls can only be a good thing.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds.
Post Comment