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Every Memory Backend Mishandled Permission

An on-device assistant benchmark found systems either leaked too much or disclosed too little.

Published Updated Story ID: mp-2026-08-05-015
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Summary

An on-device assistant benchmark found systems either leaked too much or disclosed too little.

MemArena simulates 50 agents over 15 days and tests five open-weight readers with several memory backends. The authors report that backend choice affected accuracy more than reader scaling, while permission-aware access failed universally: oracle retrieval leaked heavily and other systems were overly reluctant. Results come from a synthetic single-world benchmark, not real private conversations.

Why it matters

An on-device assistant benchmark found systems either leaked too much or disclosed too little.

Limits and context

  • Results come from a synthetic single-world benchmark, not real private conversations.

Key claims

  1. An on-device assistant benchmark found systems either leaked too much or disclosed too little.

    Qualification: Results come from a synthetic single-world benchmark, not real private conversations.

    Evidence: source-2026-08-05-017

Sources

  1. arXiv preprint 2608.02609arXiv · primary research

Corrections

No corrections have been recorded for this story.

Every Memory Backend Mishandled Permission · The Machine Press