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Meta plans to scale back a controversial “mouse-tracking” feature that has sparked internal debate.
Reuters and The Information reported on June 2 that they obtained an internal Meta memo showing the company is updating the Model Capability Improvement Initiative (MCI), which launched last April. The initiative was designed to collect employees’ mouse movements and keystrokes to serve as training data for AI agents.
Under the update, employees will be able to pause data collection for up to 30 minutes and may request to be excluded from the project entirely.
Stefan Kasriel, vice president of Superintelligence Labs (MSL), wrote in the memo that he remains confident in the privacy safeguards established after multiple risk reviews when MCI launched, but he acknowledged employees’ concerns about personal data on work devices, battery life, and the desire for more control over when data are collected.
Meta said employees working in sensitive areas have already been excluded from the tool’s use.
As an additional privacy measure, Meta will summarize user activity rather than capturing the exact words employees type. The company added that strict internal access controls limit access to MCI data to a small number of engineers.
The change follows employee backlash. Coupled with major layoffs, workers accused the company of becoming a “data-extraction factory.” Last month, U.S. employees distributed leaflets and circulated an online petition demanding that the company stop collecting such data.
Observers also warned that Meta’s data-collection and usage practices could run afoul of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
At an internal meeting last April, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said company employees provide higher-quality data than contractors that data-labeling firms typically use. He added, “Across AI, a lot of data generation happens through these contract firms,” and asserted, “On average, people who work directly for a company have much higher intelligence than those you can hire through contractors.”
Reporter Lim Dae-jun ydj@aitimes.com
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