Meta Muse AI shares user's address on marketplace - Here is what went wrong and why it raises privacy concerns

Meta Muse AI reportedly negotiated a Facebook Marketplace deal, shared a user’s address and arranged a late-night pickup without explicit approval. Screenshots shared by Threads user Matt J. Robb suggest the AI treated the Marketplace task as permission to handle the transaction on his behalf.

Meta’s Muse AI agent reportedly negotiated a Facebook Marketplace deal, shared a user’s address and arranged a late-night pickup without the user’s approval. According to a verified user of Threads, Matt J. Robb, Muse handled a listing for Logitech MX Keys Mini and was willing to take an offer on the price.

Robb's screenshots indicate that the buyer was given the location of the keyboard and that he would be arriving between 8pm and 10pm. In an apparent attempt to locate Robb, the buyer later went to Robb's building at around 9:15pm. Robb said he had not approved the deal or the pickup arrangement. The incident brings up an important question: why did Muse feel entitled to execute a legitimate, in-person deal during a conversation?

Muse is designed to act, not just chat

This reported incident seems to be related to how Muse is supposed to work. Meta describes Muse as a personal AI agent that can browse websites, complete multi-step tasks and negotiate on a user’s behalf. It can continue working in the background after the user leaves the app.

Meta has also made an explicit reference to negotiations similar to Marketplace as an agentic use case. This means Muse can understand the intent of the user and can take action to help them achieve it, instead of waiting for instructions for each action.

Where the Marketplace interaction went wrong

This is not a story of negotiating the price, as screenshots from Robb indicate that Muse was doing more than that. It apparently moved the conversation to an actual pick-up and gave a location to the purchaser.

Pragya Singha Roy