Meta Tracks Employees' Mouse and Keyboard Records to Train AI, Sparking Privacy Controversy
Meta is rolling out tracking software on US employees' computers to record mouse and keyboard activity for training AI agents, raising concerns among experts about workplace surveillance and privacy laws.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: April 23, 2026 at 03:42
- 🔍 Collected: April 23, 2026 at 04:01 (19 min after Published)
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 23, 2026 at 04:39 (37 min after Collected)
Central News Agency
(CNA, New York/San Francisco, 22nd) According to an internal memo obtained by Reuters, Meta has stated that the company is installing new tracking software on its US employees' computers to record mouse movements, clicks, and keyboard inputs to help train its artificial intelligence (AI) models.
Reuters reported that Meta indicated this is part of the company's overall plan to build AI agents capable of autonomously executing work tasks.
According to one of the memos, this tool, named the "Model Capability Initiative" (MCI), will run on work-related apps and websites. It will also periodically capture employees' screenshots. The goal is to allow AI models to learn how to operate computers like humans, such as proficiently selecting content from drop-down menus, using keyboard shortcuts, and switching between different workflows.
The memo stated: "This is how all Meta employees can help the models improve through their daily work."
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is actively introducing AI into workflows and restructuring its workforce, arguing that this move will improve operational efficiency.
Meta's Chief Technology Officer, Andrew Bosworth, told employees: "Our vision is for AI agents to be responsible for primary work, while the human's role is to guide, review, and help them improve. By observing human interventions, AI can perform better next time."
He did not explicitly state how these AI agents would be trained, merely saying that Meta would "rigorously establish the data and evaluation mechanisms needed for various work interactions."
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed that the data collected by MCI will be one of the sources for training data.
● AI Reshaping the Workforce
Stone stated that the data collected by MCI is strictly used for training AI models and will not be used to evaluate employee performance or for other purposes. He added that the company has mechanisms in place to protect "sensitive content," but did not specify what data would be excluded.
He said: "To build AI agents that can assist people with their daily work, the models must understand real usage scenarios, such as mouse operations, clicking buttons, and browsing drop-down menus."
Since the beginning of this year, a trend of replacing some human labor with AI has become prevalent among large US companies. AI tools can complete complex tasks, such as app development and massive data organization, with limited human supervision. This has sparked a craze in Silicon Valley and prompted some corporate executives to plan large-scale layoffs.
Meta plans to cut about 10% of its global workforce starting May 20th and is considering further mass layoffs later this year.
E-commerce and cloud computing giant Amazon has laid off about 30,000 corporate employees in recent months, accounting for nearly 10% of its white-collar workforce; fintech company Block cut nearly half of its staff in February.
● Concerns over Monitoring Employee Work
Ifeoma Ajunwa, a law professor at Yale University, noted that keystroke logging and screen monitoring technologies were previously mostly used to investigate employee misconduct or non-work-related activities. Expanding this to AI training purposes means white-collar workers are facing a higher degree of real-time surveillance.
She stated, "At the US federal level, there are no clear restrictions on corporate monitoring of employees," with only some state laws requiring employers to provide advance notice.
Valerio De Stefano, a law professor at York University in Toronto, pointed out that European laws might prohibit such surveillance. In countries like Italy, tracking employee productivity with electronic monitoring is illegal. German courts have also ruled that employers can only use keystroke logging technology under special circumstances, such as involving suspicion of a major crime.
He added that such practices could potentially violate Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). (Translated by: Liu Wenyu) 1150423
(CNA, New York/San Francisco, 22nd) According to an internal memo obtained by Reuters, Meta has stated that the company is installing new tracking software on its US employees' computers to record mouse movements, clicks, and keyboard inputs to help train its artificial intelligence (AI) models.
Reuters reported that Meta indicated this is part of the company's overall plan to build AI agents capable of autonomously executing work tasks.
According to one of the memos, this tool, named the "Model Capability Initiative" (MCI), will run on work-related apps and websites. It will also periodically capture employees' screenshots. The goal is to allow AI models to learn how to operate computers like humans, such as proficiently selecting content from drop-down menus, using keyboard shortcuts, and switching between different workflows.
The memo stated: "This is how all Meta employees can help the models improve through their daily work."
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is actively introducing AI into workflows and restructuring its workforce, arguing that this move will improve operational efficiency.
Meta's Chief Technology Officer, Andrew Bosworth, told employees: "Our vision is for AI agents to be responsible for primary work, while the human's role is to guide, review, and help them improve. By observing human interventions, AI can perform better next time."
He did not explicitly state how these AI agents would be trained, merely saying that Meta would "rigorously establish the data and evaluation mechanisms needed for various work interactions."
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed that the data collected by MCI will be one of the sources for training data.
● AI Reshaping the Workforce
Stone stated that the data collected by MCI is strictly used for training AI models and will not be used to evaluate employee performance or for other purposes. He added that the company has mechanisms in place to protect "sensitive content," but did not specify what data would be excluded.
He said: "To build AI agents that can assist people with their daily work, the models must understand real usage scenarios, such as mouse operations, clicking buttons, and browsing drop-down menus."
Since the beginning of this year, a trend of replacing some human labor with AI has become prevalent among large US companies. AI tools can complete complex tasks, such as app development and massive data organization, with limited human supervision. This has sparked a craze in Silicon Valley and prompted some corporate executives to plan large-scale layoffs.
Meta plans to cut about 10% of its global workforce starting May 20th and is considering further mass layoffs later this year.
E-commerce and cloud computing giant Amazon has laid off about 30,000 corporate employees in recent months, accounting for nearly 10% of its white-collar workforce; fintech company Block cut nearly half of its staff in February.
● Concerns over Monitoring Employee Work
Ifeoma Ajunwa, a law professor at Yale University, noted that keystroke logging and screen monitoring technologies were previously mostly used to investigate employee misconduct or non-work-related activities. Expanding this to AI training purposes means white-collar workers are facing a higher degree of real-time surveillance.
She stated, "At the US federal level, there are no clear restrictions on corporate monitoring of employees," with only some state laws requiring employers to provide advance notice.
Valerio De Stefano, a law professor at York University in Toronto, pointed out that European laws might prohibit such surveillance. In countries like Italy, tracking employee productivity with electronic monitoring is illegal. German courts have also ruled that employers can only use keystroke logging technology under special circumstances, such as involving suspicion of a major crime.
He added that such practices could potentially violate Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). (Translated by: Liu Wenyu) 1150423