A new daily reminder that might be worth sharing from now until the true end times is that even if AI seems helpful and useful for many things, giving it too much permission or access can be a bad thing.

And that’s pretty much what Apple, one of the biggest tech companies in the world, is saying in a new notice on its developer page, basically warning users against giving Full Disk Access to AI agents that are becoming all the rage.

Let’s look at this statement from Apple, what it means, and how you can protect yourself whether you’re into the AI movement or not.

Apple’s Full Disk Access Statement

Credit: Apple

Issued on the Apple Developer page as an “Updates to Full Disk Access in macOS” post last week, the company is warning users against giving their AI agents Full Disk Access in ways that could put them at risk.

Here’s the full statement from Apple:

We give developers powerful APIs to build incredible capabilities into their apps for Apple products, backed by a set of controls designed to protect users’ private data. Full Disk Access largely sidesteps these controls in order to allow backup apps to function properly on the Mac. Some developers are using Full Disk Access 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. For communication apps, this can also compromise the privacy of the people users are communicating with.

Going forward, we will introduce additional controls to ensure that users who genuinely wish to grant an app this extraordinary level of access can only do so with very explicit user action. Addressing this is critical. As AI agents become increasingly capable and autonomous, the risks associated with this level of access will grow substantially. We are committed to ensuring users clearly understand these risks before granting such access, so they can make informed decisions about their own data and privacy.

The risk Apple is calling out is access to everything on their systems, including files, mail, messages, and even browsing history. Access, which, in many cases, is being shared without most users' full knowledge or understanding.

How to Protect Yourself Moving Forward

The good news here, I guess, is that Apple is promising to introduce additional controls to ensure that even when users do want to give AI agents access to some elements, Full Disk Access will not be granted as well, or attainable to do so.

Again, a promise that can only really be a promise at this point, and for those skeptical or simply pragmatic about things, can be avoided by not giving AI agents access at all. If and when Apple has more concrete announcements about protective measures, we’ll let you know.

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