What is the mouse tracking software that infuriated Meta employees in the US: “I don’t want to work…” | Today’s news
Employees at Meta’s offices in the United States (US) were treated to an unusual sight on Tuesday when fliers criticizing the company’s workplace monitoring software appeared in meeting rooms, vending machines and even bathroom walls.
The flyers carried the same message: “Don’t you want to work in an employee data extraction factory?” According to Reuters, the pamphlets directed workers to an online petition demanding that the Facebook owner shut down the software program. The material also referenced the National Labor Relations Act, which protects employees who organize to improve workplace conditions.
What is mouse tracking software?
The protest centers around Meta’s internal monitoring tool, called the Model Capability Initiative (MCI), which the company reportedly began installing on the work laptops of US employees last month.
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The software tracks mouse movements, clicks, keystrokes and periodic screenshots as workers use select applications such as Gmail, GChat, VSCode and Meta’s internal AI assistant, Metamate. The collected information is then used to train Meta’s artificial intelligence systems to better understand how people interact with computer interfaces, including navigating menus and using shortcuts.
However, the rollout has caused unease among staff, particularly as it comes ahead of major redundancies. Meta is expected to cut nearly 10 percent of its workforce on May 20, affecting approximately 8,000 employees out of a total workforce of 78,865.
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Several workers reportedly believe the company is using employee activity data to train AI agents that could eventually replace human roles.
A viral internal post sparks a wider debate
Concerns about privacy and AI training gained further attention after an internal post by a Meta engineer garnered opinions from nearly 20,000 employees.
“Selfishly, I don’t want my screen to be scratched because it feels like an invasion of my privacy,” the engineer wrote, according to Wired.
“But putting it off, I don’t want to live in a world where people — employees or otherwise — are being used for their training data.
A petition against the software is said to have been circulating since last Thursday. Employees at Meta’s California and New York offices also put up posters in common areas and bathrooms to encourage colleagues to support the campaign.
According to Wired, some of the company’s posters have been removed, although materials placed inside the bathrooms reportedly remained visible for an extended period of time.
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In addition to the public outcry, some employees are said to be resisting the initiative more quietly by delaying the installation of the software and ignoring repeated notices asking them to activate it.
Meta is blocked by a monitoring program
Despite the criticism, Meta continued to defend the program. Company spokesman Andy Stone said the organization needed “real examples of how people actually use” computers to improve its AI systems, while saying there were safeguards in place to protect sensitive information.
“If we’re building agents to help people do everyday tasks with computers, our models need real-world examples of how people actually use them — things like mouse movements, button clicks, and scrolling through drop-down menus,” Stone was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth reportedly took a firmer stance when answering questions from employees about logging out of the system. Asked in an internal thread whether workers could opt out, he said there was no opt-out option for company-issued laptops.
