AI agents are coming for your privacy(economist.com)
economist.com
AI agents are coming for your privacy
https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2025/09/09/ai-agents-are-coming-for-your-privacy-warns-meredith-whittaker
https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2025/09/09/ai-agents-are-coming-for-your-privacy-warns-meredith-whittaker
First, privacy must be the default, and control must remain in the hands of application developers exercising agency on behalf of their users. Developers need the ability to designate applications as “sensitive” and mark them as off-limits to agents, at the OS level and otherwise. This cannot be a convoluted workaround buried in settings; it must be a straightforward, well-documented mechanism (similar to Global Privacy Control) that blocks an agent from accessing our data or taking actions within an app.
Yes, I would hope to see this come to fruition across all platforms, and soon! I'm mildly optimistic on this front.
Second, radical transparency must be the norm. Vague assurances and marketing-speak are no longer acceptable. OS vendors have an obligation to be clear and precise about their architecture and what data their AI agents are accessing, how it is being used and the measures in place to protect it.
I love this view of the future world, but I see no path to actually getting there. If the vast majority of users were (are) willing to give away their daily intents and actions, why wouldn't they naturally continue down that path with app introspection, screen grabbing, or the like? Tell me it ain't so, but I'm pretty bearish on seeing this become the norm.