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Meta's "Private" Muse Links Weren't Private

PrivacyAllan C. Tan, MS

Muse built share links from each chat's title, and public records kept them. Strangers could find loan applications and revenue reviews. Meta has paused sharing.

Woman using a smartphone beside a laptop, with overlay Meta's Private Muse Links Weren't Private

A share link is only as private as its address, and Meta just learned that the hard way. Researchers at the security firm Claroc found that links to shared chats from Muse, Meta's new AI agent, could be found by strangers who were never sent them. Meta has now paused the sharing feature.

The title gave it away

When a Muse user shared a chat, Muse built the web address from the chat's own title, such as a loan application draft or a quarterly revenue review. Once the person receiving the link opened it, that address was saved in public internet records that anyone can search. Claroc says it listed 6,800 shared links this way. "It took one query," the researchers wrote.

After opening a few hundred, they found things never meant for the public: a small business owner's loan application, a CEO's revenue review, a bank fraud alert with a partial account number, and a staff vacation calendar. Meta told Ars Technica it has paused sharing "while we review this report and consider changes to how these links can be discovered." Claroc says it first reported the issue to Meta on October 8.

A good share link is a long random code that says nothing about what sits behind it. It should never include your name, your chat's title or your topic. If you use AI chat tools, open your sharing settings, delete old shared links you no longer need, and assume anything shared can travel further than you meant.

For builders, the lesson is simple. Keep titles out of web addresses, let links expire, and ask for a login before showing anything sensitive. Muse asks for access to most of a person's accounts. That much trust has to start with small details like this one.

We have covered Muse before, including why its biggest selling point is trust.

Sources

  1. GhostShares: A Shared Muse Chat Exposed Prep for a Confidential Call With a Frontier AI Lab Leader (Claroc Blog, company research)
  2. Meta Muse exposes users' personal and business secrets when they share conversations (Ars Technica)
  3. A Design Flaw in Share Links Exposes Users’ Personal Conversations With Meta’s Muse (WIRED)
  4. Meta suspends Muse chats sharing feature after it left private details exposed (Engadget)
  5. Meta pauses Muse sharing after researchers find AI chats on the web (The Verge)

Photo: Middle-aged woman using a smartphone with laptop by Shixart1985 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.