Meta monitored employee devices and used data to train AI systems
Meta installed monitoring software on US employee devices that tracked cursor movements, keystrokes and application usage to train AI agents, reportedly capturing communications with non-US workers in violation of privacy regulations. The company made changes to the Capacity Modeling Initiative after employee protests and EU regulators raised concerns about GDPR compliance.
What happened
Meta launched the Capacity Modeling Initiative in April 2026, installing monitoring software on US employee devices that tracked cursor movements, keystrokes, clicks and application usage across more than 200 applications and websites.
The collected data was used to train AI agents to perform administrative tasks automatically. Internal documents indicated that communications involving non-US employees could be recorded when those workers communicated with US-based colleagues, potentially capturing emails and conversations.
Reported impact
Employees complained that the monitoring software consumed excessive data, causing their home internet usage to spike, and raised privacy concerns by comparing Meta to a 'Data Extraction Factory for Employees.' Weeks of employee protests prompted the company to modify the system.
Index analysis
Privacy experts at NOYB argued that using employee communications data originally collected for employment contracts to train AI models could exceed the original purpose under GDPR. The Irish Data Protection Commission, Meta's primary European regulator, received notification of the program and began reviewing it.
Governance controls
After employee protests, Meta modified the monitoring system in June 2026 to allow employees to pause data collection for up to 30 minutes and request exemptions from the initiative. The company also claimed to have implemented optimization measures to reduce battery consumption and stated that privacy risk reviews had been conducted before launch.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.