Meta Muse accused of keeping a dossier on every user
Muse profiles partners and friends of Meta users (photo: Minh Connors/Bloomberg)
Meta Muse collects detailed information about people in users' close circles, according to an analysis of the system's internal documents. According to WIRED and leaked system prompts, the AI can also access bank accounts, messaging apps, and other personal data.
Automated creation of profiles
All of Muse's system instructions and files proved easy to access: The AI agent openly shares them if a user simply asks for them in the chat.
Independent researcher Karan Joshi and experts from The Future Society extracted the assistant's system prompts and found that one of the algorithm's key commands is an hourly process of creating and updating a separate page ("a page for every person in the user's life") for every person in the user's circle.
Profiles are created even for people who are not themselves Muse or Meta service users.
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The digital profiles include
Personal data and facts: Name, relationship to the user, place of residence, profession, important dates (birthdays, anniversaries).
Context and shared goals: Recurring topics of discussion (such as an upcoming move or saving money together), shared trips and past resolved conflicts.
Relationship analysis: An assessment of closeness, interaction patterns, and current communication needs.
Strengthening parameters: Automated suggestions for improving relationships—a reason to call, topics for restarting a conversation, or gift ideas.
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Shopping scandals, vulnerabilities, developers' stance
Meta's efforts to create a personalized assistant have already prompted serious concerns from security experts and partners.
What are they?
Amazon blocks Muse: In September, Amazon blocked Muse from making purchases in its online store because Meta had not notified the company about the assistant's launch in advance and because of concerns about protecting customers' account credentials
Zero-day vulnerability: Meta recently patched a critical vulnerability in the Mac version of Muse that allowed third-party malware to take control of the assistant and use permissions granted to it by the user
Privacy concerns: Researchers say that AI's attempt to learn about a person "like a friend" is an "alarming downside of free services."
In a statement to the outlet, Meta representatives said it collects information only from public sources and data users voluntarily share with the assistant.
All information is stored in each individual user's secure virtual machine (VM), which is inaccessible to other assistants, while users can clear the AI's memory at any time.
Despite this, ethics experts stress that such tools give companies unprecedented access to contextual data about people's private lives without their direct consent.
