Singapore’s cyber and digital agencies warned Friday that personal artificial intelligence (AI) agents can expose accounts or trigger unintended actions, saying users may face liability depending on circumstances and applicable law.
The joint advisory, issued Nov. 6 by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA), Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) and Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), describes agents that connect to apps and accounts, browse websites, handle email and make bookings. Some may continue working in the background when users are not interacting with them.
Instructions hidden in webpages, emails, calendar invitations, messages, documents or images could steer an agent toward purchases, fund transfers or revealing personal information, the agencies said. The advisory names Dots, Hermes, Muse, Grok Bot and OpenClaw as examples. It cautions users against treating agents as “human assistants.”
The guidance recommends restricting agents to accounts they need and keeping them away from banking, government and health care accounts. Users should not give them passwords, passcodes, one-time passwords or credit card details. For Singpass, the agencies recommend making passkeys the default and having users complete authentication themselves.
Where available, users should choose read-only or limited permissions and require the agent to pause for approval before significant actions. The advisory also recommends reviewing activity and removing access that is no longer needed. Its five areas of guidance include protection against scams and consideration of how agents’ actions may affect others.
Information from connected accounts may be processed or stored by providers and their partner companies, the agencies said. They urge users to check providers’ policies on data collection, sharing and retention, and whether information may be used for model training or personalized advertising. The advisory says users remain responsible for how they use agents and may be liable for actions the tools take, depending on the circumstances and applicable laws.
Meta announced Muse’s availability in Singapore on Oct. 27, with connections to services including Gmail, Google Calendar and Instagram. The agencies use Muse to illustrate settings in an annex, while clarifying that the example is neither an endorsement nor an assessment of the product’s privacy or security.
