Meta is scaling back its plan to collect employee mouse movements, keystrokes, and other actions as training data for its artificial intelligence, according to an internal memo circulated on Tuesday. The decision follows weeks of strong internal opposition to the initiative.
The memo, authored by Stephane Kasriel, Vice President of the "Super-Intelligent Lab" unit that builds Meta's AI models, states that new control features will allow employees to pause data collection for up to 30 minutes at a time and to apply for exemptions from the program.
Kasriel noted that after employees complained the software was consuming significant data, causing spikes in their home internet usage, the development team had introduced "multiple optimizations" to reduce the impact on computer battery life.
"While we were confident in the privacy safeguards we had in place at launch—which had undergone multiple layers of risk review—we heard your concerns about personal data on work devices, battery life, and wanting more control over when data collection happens," Kasriel wrote in the memo.
The company announced last month it was installing new tracking software on the computers of its U.S.-based employees to log mouse movements, clicks, and keystrokes to train its AI models. This initiative is part of the company's broader plan to build AI agents capable of autonomously performing work tasks.
This rollout coincides with a period of significant restructuring at Meta and has sparked a strong backlash from employees, some of whom have likened the company to an "employee data extraction factory." The deployment could also exacerbate Meta's regulatory challenges in the European Union, where tech firms are embroiled in intense legal conflicts over data collection and deployment methods.
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