🔍 Read the full analysis: Meta’s AI Agent Could Read Messages Without Muse: A Quick Guide on ThorstenMeyerAI.com
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TL;DR
Meta announced Muse’s launch in Singapore on October 27, while reports have raised questions about the personal AI agent’s handling of connected messages and information about people who do not use it. Meta says each user controls Muse’s access; the full scope of its memory and deletion behavior remains unclear.
Meta announced that its Muse personal AI agent is coming to Singapore on October 27, bringing the product to its first Asian market as reports describe how it can access connected messages and store information about people who never signed up. The reporting raises privacy questions for anyone whose conversations appear in another person’s email, social accounts or messages, though Meta says each user controls what Muse can access.
Muse is a cloud-based assistant that can perform tasks such as answering email, booking tables and shopping. Meta says each user receives a private virtual machine, and that the agent can be used through its app, on a Mac or in a WhatsApp conversation. The company launched Muse in the United States on September 8, followed by Japan on October 23; Singapore is its first announced market in Asia.
Muse uses connectors to work with other services. Meta’s help information says users can connect email, calendars and Mac Messages, the latter requiring macOS Full Disk Access and the user to enable the connector. Facebook, Instagram and Threads may connect automatically when they share an Accounts Center with Muse. Meta chief AI officer Alexandr Wang said the Instagram connector includes direct messages and named Messenger among the available connectors; the detailed scope of those social messaging connections is not spelled out on the help pages cited in the source material.
Reporting by WIRED and TIME described internal instructions directing Muse to keep profiles of people in its user’s life, drawing on names and information in messages and emails. TIME reported that the files are refreshed hourly. Meta did not dispute TIME’s findings, according to the source material. Its spokesperson said users decide how much access Muse gets. Separately, Meta’s help information says Muse may retain learned information after a user deletes the original material, and that its “forget” feature works “to the best of its ability.”
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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Privacy Beyond Muse Users
The reports highlight how an AI assistant’s access can affect people who never installed it. When a Muse user connects an account or service, messages involving friends, relatives and colleagues may become available to the agent as part of that user’s information. Those people do not control the other person’s connector settings, and may not know their details are being summarized or retained.
For users, the product’s usefulness is tied to access: connecting more services can give Muse more context for tasks. That creates a practical trade-off between convenience and the amount of personal information an agent can process. Meta offers controls to disconnect connectors, disable model training, edit its memory file or reset the agent, but those controls are available to the Muse user.
The launch also coincides with a major financing development. The source says Meta sold $25 billion in stock at $625 a share, alongside $12.5 billion in preferred stock, and that Nvidia is investing $3 billion. Nvidia supplies chips Meta plans to deploy for Muse. The figures show the scale of the companies’ financial and technology relationship, but do not by themselves establish how the investment will affect Muse’s privacy practices.
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How Muse Connects to Accounts
Meta describes Muse as a personal agent that runs on a cloud computer. The company says one user’s Muse Secure VM cannot be reached by another user’s agent. That is a claim about isolation between agents; it does not answer what information a user’s own agent can retrieve from connected services or retain in its memory.
Meta’s help pages say connecting email lets Muse search messages, but does not download the whole inbox unless the user asks it to. Calendar connectors may send changes to Muse proactively. Mac Messages requires specific permissions. Users can also build custom connectors, though Meta warns it does not review them. Meta’s privacy policy, as summarized in the source material, describes some connector data as shared proactively and includes messages, connector data and “information about you or others” among the information it collects.
On October 3, WIRED reported on Muse instruction files obtained by security researcher Karan Joshi, who asked the agent to provide them in chat. TIME published a separate review three days later. The source material says these reports describe profiles about the user and people mentioned in the user’s communications. It also cites a TIME report of more than five million downloads within weeks, but provides no precise measurement window or comparison baseline for that figure.
What Access and Memory Include
The source material does not establish exactly which Instagram or Messenger messages Muse can retrieve, when it accesses them, or how long information derived from them is retained. Meta’s help pages reportedly do not detail those connectors’ reading scope. It is also unclear how the reported hourly profile updates work across different connectors and what information is included in the system’s shared, de-identified “lessons.”
Meta did not dispute TIME’s findings in the account provided, but its response emphasized user control. The available information does not show whether people mentioned in messages can learn that Muse has processed their information, request its removal from another user’s memory, or prevent future processing by that agent. Meta’s statement that Muse may remember information after deletion also leaves unclear how reliably a reset or memory edit removes derived details.
Controls as Muse Expands
Meta’s announced Singapore launch is the next expansion milestone identified in the source material. As Muse becomes available in additional markets, details to watch include whether Meta publishes clearer documentation for each connector, explains how its memory and deletion tools work, and adds controls for people whose information appears in another user’s accounts.
Muse users can review connected services, disconnect connectors they do not need, turn off model training, edit the memory file or reset the agent. The source material also points to WhatsApp’s Advanced Chat Privacy as one way non-users may limit what is retained in other people’s archives. That measure does not amount to control over every service connected to Muse, and Meta has not set out a broader non-user privacy process in the material provided.
Key Questions
What is Muse?
Muse is Meta’s cloud-based personal AI agent. Meta says it can help with tasks such as answering email, booking tables and shopping by connecting to services selected or made available by its user.
Can Muse access messages from people who do not use it?
Reports cited in the source material describe Muse instructions for creating profiles about people mentioned in a user’s chats, messages and emails. That means information about non-users may be processed when it appears in connected accounts, but the exact scope of access has not been fully documented in the cited help pages.
Does Muse automatically connect to Instagram?
Meta’s help information says Facebook, Instagram and Threads may connect automatically when they share an Accounts Center with Muse. Meta chief AI officer Alexandr Wang said the Instagram connector includes direct messages, but the cited help pages do not explain the full scope of that access.
Does deleting a message remove what Muse remembers?
Not necessarily, according to Meta’s help information as summarized in the source material. It says Muse may still remember information learned from deleted material, and describes the “forget” feature as working “to the best of its ability.”
What can Muse users do to limit access?
Users can disconnect connectors, turn off model training, edit the memory file or reset Muse. These controls are managed by the Muse user; the source material does not describe equivalent controls for people whose information appears in someone else’s connected accounts.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
