Meta Softens Employee Surveillance Tool After Internal Backlash

Meta has scaled back its Model Capability Initiative (MCI), a tool that logs employee keystrokes and mouse clicks to train AI models for agentic computing. Following a petition signed by more than 1,500 staff and weeks of internal dissent, the company will now let workers pause data collection in 30-minute increments and apply for full exemptions. A VP in Meta’s Superintelligence Labs framed the changes as a response to concerns about personal data on work devices, battery drain, and lack of control over capture timing.

The pushback was sharpened by context: Meta has cut roughly 2,000 jobs this year and signaled plans to eliminate around 8,000 more. Employees described the tracking as dystopian and as evidence the company is forcing AI adoption on a workforce already braced for layoffs. The tool reportedly consumed enough bandwidth to spike home internet usage, prompting separate performance tweaks alongside the new opt-out controls.

The episode illustrates the friction between AI training data demands and worker privacy expectations, even inside companies whose business depends on data collection. Half-hour pauses and discretionary exemptions stop short of a true opt-out, leaving the underlying surveillance regime intact while defusing the most immediate complaints.