Meta announced on Monday that it is suspending an internal program used for artificial intelligence training to investigate data security issues. The program tracked employees' mouse movements and digital activity.
Previously exposed documents revealed that sensitive data within Meta's internal systems, used for monitoring staff digital interactions, was inadvertently made accessible for viewing by the entire Meta workforce.
Meta confirmed an investigation is underway but declined to state how long it plans to suspend the project.
Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton stated: "We designed this program carefully and included privacy safeguards. While there is no indication at this time that any Meta employee improperly accessed any data, we are suspending the program while we investigate."
The tool, named the Model Capability Initiative (MCI), was launched in April. It captures mouse movements, clicks, and keyboard inputs on the computers of Meta employees in the United States to train the company's AI models.
According to sources, as of Monday afternoon local time, the tool was still recording data.
A Meta spokesperson indicated the suspension is being implemented in phases and will take some time to fully stop all user operations.
Meta's decision to pause the MCI tool stemmed from an employee filing an SEV (high-priority security incident report), which flagged that the MCI had exposed employee data.
Internal documents show the leaked data included "complete prompts and transcribed text, private conversations, personnel and performance data, DSS sensitivity ratings (1-4)."
Last month, reports emerged that the project collected far more information than initially disclosed and stored this data in unencrypted form, raising employee privacy concerns.
Internal documents reveal that an employee commented in the SEV discussion, calling for a more thorough investigation into the related issues.
"Like thousands of employees, I have accessed personal tax and medical information on my work computer. We were told this data was protected and, after rigorous filtering, would only be used for legitimate business purposes," the employee wrote.
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