Exclusive-Meta scales back plan for internal mouse-tracking tech, citing staff concerns
Meta Adjusts AI Training Data Collection Amid Employee Backlash
By Katie Paul
June 2 (Reuters) - Meta is dialing back elements of its plan to collect employee mouse movements, keystrokes and other actions for use as AI training data, it said in an internal memo on Tuesday, following weeks of angry pushback from staffers.
New Employee Controls and Exemptions
New controls will allow employees to pause the data collection for up to 30 minutes at a time and request exemptions from the initiative, according to the memo, authored by Stephane Kasriel, a vice president in Meta's AI model-building Superintelligence Labs unit.
Optimizations to Address Staff Concerns
Kasriel said the team behind the software had also introduced "several optimizations" to reduce its impact on computer battery life, after employees complained it was consuming so much data that it was causing their home internet usage to spike.
Privacy Protections and Employee Feedback
"While we remain confident in the privacy protections we put in place at launch, which went through several layers of risk review, we have heard your concerns about personal data on work devices, battery life, and wanting more control over when capturing happens," Kasriel said in the memo.
Background: Meta’s AI Training Initiative and Staff Reaction
The company announced last month that it was installing new tracking software on U.S.-based employees’ computers to capture mouse movements, clicks and keystrokes for use in training its artificial intelligence models, part of a broad initiative to build AI agents that can perform work tasks autonomously.
Restructuring and Employee Pushback
The launch came in the context of a far-reaching restructuring at Meta and prompted an angry backlash among staffers, who have likened Meta to an “Employee Data Extraction Factory.”
Reporting and Editing Credits
(Reporting by Katie Paul in New York, Editing by Franklin Paul and David Gregorio)
