Google Gemini could soon get full access to your Mac’s files, apps and the web

Google's proposed 'desktop control' feature for Gemini illustrates a growing risk: AI agents being granted broad, persistent access to files, applications, and system resources without granular user oversight. The root concern is excessive privilege — when an AI can read, modify, or delete files and interact with sensitive apps like Mail without per-action consent, the attack surface expands dramatically. A compromised or misbehaving AI agent with these permissions could exfiltrate data, alter critical files, or be manipulated through prompt injection attacks. This matters because users often underestimate the cumulative risk of convenience-driven permission grants, and 'planned safeguards' are not a substitute for enforceable, minimal-privilege access controls. As AI agents become more capable, the principle of least privilege must be applied as rigorously to software agents as it is to human users.