従業員 can opt out of working tracking – but only 30 minutes at a time

Meta Workers can opt out of being tracked at work, but only for 30 minutes at a time.

Meta is scaling back plans to start tracking employees' computer activity, according to an internal memo sent Tuesday.

In April, the company faced criticism from employees after announcing a new tool that records keystrokes and mouse clicks to train AI models.

Mehta declined to comment for this record.

This follows weeks of backlash from employees, including some who started a petition opposing the move that has now garnered more than 1,500 signatures.

In an initial announcement of the tool, called the Model Capability Initiative (MCI), Meta told the BBC: “If we want to build agents that help people use computers to complete everyday tasks, our model needs real-world examples of how people actually use them.”

The data is "not used for any other purpose," it added, and the tool has "safeguards in place to protect sensitive content."

But workers were not impressed, with one Meta employee, who asked not to be identified, telling the BBC that he felt his actions were "very dystopian" for training AI models. This is because workers expected numerous additional job cuts.

Another person who recently left the company told the BBC that the tracking tool was "the latest way to shove AI down everyone's throat".

The internal memo, seen by Reuters, was reportedly written by Stephane Kasriel, vice president of Meta's Superintelligence Labs division.

He said the MCI team has introduced "several optimizations" to reduce the impact on laptop battery life.

The change comes after employees reported that their tools were consuming too much data, leading to a surge in internet usage when working from home.

“We are confident in our privacy protections, having gone through multiple stages of risk review at launch, but we have heard concerns about personal data on work devices, battery life, and a desire for more control over capture,” Kasriel said in a note.