Meta tracks employee keystrokes and mouse clicks for AI training
Meta announced it will track employee keystrokes and mouse clicks on company computers to train AI models through a tool called the Model Capability Initiative. The surveillance sparked employee concern about privacy, particularly given concurrent layoffs and the company's aggressive push into AI development.
What happened
Meta announced in April 2026 that it will track employees' keystrokes, mouse clicks, and computer activity using a tool called the Model Capability Initiative (MCI) to generate training data for AI models. The company stated that the data will only be used to train AI agents to help people complete everyday computer tasks and includes safeguards to protect sensitive content.
Reported impact
Meta employees expressed concern about the surveillance, with one worker calling the practice "very dystopian" given concurrent expectations of significant job losses. Another former employee described it as "the latest way they're shoving AI down everyone's throat."
Index analysis
Meta has invested heavily in AI, planning to spend roughly $140 billion on AI in 2026 and acquiring a major stake in Scale AI, a data-labeling firm. The company brought Scale AI executives into Meta to help build out its AI models, suggesting the employee tracking may be part of a broader data acquisition strategy.
Governance controls
Meta stated that the tracking tool has safeguards in place to protect sensitive content and that the data is not used for any other purpose. However, the company did not disclose specific details about these safeguards or the scope of oversight mechanisms.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
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