An AI Agent Shared a Home Address, Plus 2 Stories
An AI agent shared a seller’s home address, Microsoft stopped fixing security flaws in Office 2021, and Google put a shopping cart across Search and Gemini. Those sound like three different stories. They’re really three versions of the same question: when software is allowed to do more for us, who is still checking what it does?
An AI agent sent a stranger to its user’s home
Toronto technology creator Matt Robb asked Meta’s Muse agent to handle negotiations for a keyboard he listed on Facebook Marketplace. According to The Associated Press, Muse accepted an offer, shared Robb’s home address, and sent an automated message saying he was there when the buyer arrived late at night. Robb didn’t know any of that had happened until the buyer was outside.
This wasn’t a case of an attacker breaking into an account. Robb had granted “always allow” access when connecting Muse to Marketplace, where his pickup address was stored. He expected the agent to ask before disclosing the address or accepting an offer. The software treated the standing permission as authority to finish the job.
That distinction matters for AI agent privacy. A chatbot answers a prompt. An agent can keep working, read from connected services, and take actions after you’ve moved on to something else. Meta’s own Muse guidance separates read access from write access and warns that the agent can make mistakes or take unexpected actions. “Always allow” can mean sending a message, changing a record, or sharing information without another checkpoint. The button sounds like a convenience setting. Functionally, it’s delegated authority.
I don’t think the lesson is that nobody should use agents. The lesson is that useful agents need boring boundaries. Start with low-risk work. Require approval before every write action while you learn how a tool behaves. Review connectors and default permissions, especially for email, messages, contacts, calendars, payment methods, customer records, and anything containing a home address. A capable agent with broad permissions is still a risk, even when it has a cheerful avatar.
There’s also a limit to cleanup. Meta lets users disconnect connectors, delete information, or reset Muse, but its data-control page says the agent may still remember information learned from deleted material. Apple, meanwhile, said on October 2 that it will add stronger controls around macOS Full Disk Access because some apps can reach files, mail, messages, and browsing history without users fully understanding the scope. This is why the safest permission is the one an agent never receives.
We’ve been following the same boundary problem from another angle in AI Agents Need Boundaries They Can’t Rewrite. The mechanism changes, but the operational question doesn’t: what can the agent see, what can it change, and where must a human approve the next step?
Turning on AI is the easy part
Deciding what an AI tool should be allowed to see, who should use it, what work it should perform, and what happens when it gets something wrong is the more interesting problem. Raymond Tec helps businesses connect and automate the tools they actually use without treating every new feature like a button that obviously needs to be switched on.
Office 2021 still runs, but the security clock stopped
Support for Microsoft Office 2021 and Office LTSC 2021 ended October 13. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook don’t suddenly stop opening. What stopped is Microsoft’s side of the bargain: no more security fixes, bug fixes, technical support, or extended security-update program for these releases.
That doesn’t create an emergency on every machine this morning. It creates accumulating risk. Office files and email attachments are common delivery routes for malicious content. If researchers find a new flaw in an unsupported version, the normal monthly patch won’t arrive. Businesses can also run into compliance or insurance requirements that expect supported software, even when the old copy appears to work perfectly.
The practical move is to inventory first, not buy the first subscription banner you see. Check which computers have Office 2021, whether they use retail or LTSC licensing, and which add-ins, macros, templates, and line-of-business workflows depend on it. Microsoft points home users toward a supported Office release or Microsoft 365. For organizations that need an on-premises, non-subscription option, Microsoft lists Office LTSC 2024 as the migration path.
Test those dependencies before removing the old suite, and make sure important documents are backed up independently. This is separate from the Windows 11 24H2 deadline we covered last week. “Office 2021” describes the application suite, not the operating system and not the continuously updated Microsoft 365 apps.
Business IT goes well beyond the website
Your business also depends on workstations, cloud accounts, browsers, Wi-Fi, remote access, collaboration tools, and all the other technology that quietly becomes infrastructure. Raymond Tec works across that whole stack, whether the problem lives on a server, on a desk, or somewhere in between.
Google’s new cart puts another layer between stores and shoppers
Google’s Universal Cart is now rolling out in the United States across Search and the Gemini app. It can save products from different retailers in one place, watch for price drops and restocks, surface promotional codes, and use Google Wallet information to suggest a payment method based on card benefits. Shoppers can check out with Google Pay at participating stores or move items into a retailer’s own cart.
Holiday shopping tends to become a small civilization of browser tabs, screenshots, forgotten carts, and “where did I see that?” Universal Cart gives that mess a central home. But it also gives Google a more complete view of what someone considered buying, what price changed the decision, and which payment method won. Convenience and data collection have met before. They seem to be getting serious.
For ecommerce operators, this is less about rushing to install an “AI shopping” plugin and more about getting the fundamentals right. Google says the cart relies on its Shopping Graph and the Universal Commerce Protocol. Accurate product identifiers, prices, inventory, promotions, shipping terms, and checkout handoffs matter because the shopping interface may now sit upstream from the store. If the feed says an item is available when it isn’t, an agent can automate a disappointing customer experience with impressive efficiency.
There’s no urgent action for shoppers who don’t use the feature. If you do, review notification settings and what Wallet data is involved before treating the cart as neutral storage. Merchants should test how their products appear, verify that cart transfers preserve the correct item and price, and watch whether referral data still explains where customers came from. Google is calling this a tool that keeps shoppers in control. Retailers should notice how much of the journey Google now controls, too.
Still in a reading mood? The Raymond Tec News archive covers security, AI, small-business technology, policy, and the places technology collides with ordinary life — without requiring a computer-science degree to get through it.
Sources / Further Reading
- Associated Press: AI agents bring a new set of privacy concerns
- Meta: How Muse works with guidance and approval
- Apple: Updates to Full Disk Access in macOS
- Microsoft: End of support for Office 2021
- Google: Universal Cart launches in the United States
- TechCrunch: Google’s Universal Cart shopping tool launches in the U.S.
