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I disagree. Maybe certain sensitive things are outside that folder such as browser cookies, but most users have a LOT of sensitive stuff there. "Tax forms 2023

by Arainach 11mo ago

I disagree. Maybe certain sensitive things are outside that folder such as browser cookies, but most users have a LOT of sensitive stuff there. "Tax forms 2023.pdf" for instance. It's similar to UAC - a good and important protection, but fundamentally if you're letting code run with access to your plain old non-administrator documents that's where the biggest data threats are.

thewebguyd 11mo ago
> but most users have a LOT of sensitive stuff there. "Tax forms 2023.pdf" for instance. So don’t give it access? It clearly says it’ll have granular ACLs. How is this any different from something like Gemini CLI or Claude Code where you’re running it in your src directory? It’s basically that, but for non-devs and with a GUI instead of a TUI.
stubish 11mo ago
But how is this worse? If you run an agent now, it will run with your privileges. If you run an agent after this feature, it will run with limited privileges as specified by you. Heaps of ranting here about agents sucking down private data to Microsoft servers without your knowledge, where a cursory look at this feature is to give you more control if you actually want to use agents. Sure, it might be learned reflex behavior, but that is exactly what OP was talking about.
- Arainach 11mo ago
  It's worse because they're exposing these features to the kind of people who aren't running agents now.
  - EagnaIonat 11mo ago
    It literally says in the article: "This feature is completely optional and is never turned on by default." Reading the full article this is just a power user feature and in beta at that. I can see where it could be useful and the fact it puts further restrictions on how each agent works mitigates security issues.
    - Arainach 11mo ago
      For now. Features that are opt-in in developer preview have a way of becoming defaults later. Fundamentally, having a model that makes it easy to give access to an entire library instead of requiring explicit tight scoping of access to individual files is dangerous and teaches people to make mistakes that can lead to data misuse and leaks.
      - EagnaIonat 11mo ago
        > For now. What evidence are you basing that on? From what I read of the article if it was on by default, it does nothing. When it's on you get the option to create an agent. That's when you need to be careful. Even so, the current version is off, it has a big warning about the dangers of using it before and during switching it on. > that makes it easy to give access to an entire library instead of requiring explicit tight scoping of access to individual files is dangerous Again from the article, the user literally set the access rights of the agent.

thewebguyd 11mo ago

> but most users have a LOT of sensitive stuff there. "Tax forms 2023.pdf" for instance. So don’t give it access? It clearly says it’ll have granular ACLs. How is this any different from something like Gemini CLI or Claude Code where you’re running it in your src directory? It’s basically that, but for non-devs and with a GUI instead of a TUI.

stubish 11mo ago

But how is this worse? If you run an agent now, it will run with your privileges. If you run an agent after this feature, it will run with limited privileges as specified by you. Heaps of ranting here about agents sucking down private data to Microsoft servers without your knowledge, where a cursory look at this feature is to give you more control if you actually want to use agents. Sure, it might be learned reflex behavior, but that is exactly what OP was talking about.

Arainach 11mo ago
It's worse because they're exposing these features to the kind of people who aren't running agents now.
- EagnaIonat 11mo ago
  It literally says in the article: "This feature is completely optional and is never turned on by default." Reading the full article this is just a power user feature and in beta at that. I can see where it could be useful and the fact it puts further restrictions on how each agent works mitigates security issues.
  - Arainach 11mo ago
    For now. Features that are opt-in in developer preview have a way of becoming defaults later. Fundamentally, having a model that makes it easy to give access to an entire library instead of requiring explicit tight scoping of access to individual files is dangerous and teaches people to make mistakes that can lead to data misuse and leaks.
    - EagnaIonat 11mo ago
      > For now. What evidence are you basing that on? From what I read of the article if it was on by default, it does nothing. When it's on you get the option to create an agent. That's when you need to be careful. Even so, the current version is off, it has a big warning about the dangers of using it before and during switching it on. > that makes it easy to give access to an entire library instead of requiring explicit tight scoping of access to individual files is dangerous Again from the article, the user literally set the access rights of the agent.