Train employees with AI! Meta launches an internal tracking tool that records all employee mouse movements and keystrokes

Meta is installing internal tracking tools on computers used by employees in the United States, recording mouse and keyboard activity trails as well as screenshots, in order to collect data to train AI models. Although the company’s official stance is that this is not tied to performance reviews, it has nonetheless triggered controversy over employee monitoring and privacy, and European regulations may even ban this practice.

Meta launches internal tracking tools to train AI using employee behavior

Meta is installing a Model Capabilities Initiative (MCI) internal tracking tool on the computers of employees in the United States. The software runs on work-related applications and websites, recording actions such as employees moving their mouse, clicking buttons, and typing keystrokes, and periodically capturing screen images.

The purpose of collecting data is to train the company’s own AI models, so the AI can more skillfully imitate how humans operate computers.

A Meta spokesperson told Reuters that the data collected by MCI will never be used for employee performance evaluation, nor for any purpose other than model training.

However, even though Meta says it has taken safeguards to protect sensitive content, it has not provided details on which types of data would be excluded from the collection scope.

The US does not restrict “white-collar surveillance,” but Italy and Germany have strict rules

Yale Law School professor Ifeoma Ajunwa said that recording keystrokes takes the data-collection goal one step further, exposing office workers to real-time monitoring that, in the past, was experienced only by delivery drivers. However, the U.S. government has not placed limits on labor monitoring; at most, state laws only require employers to inform employees when monitoring is carried out.

Valerio De Stefano, a law professor at York University in Toronto, pointed out that European laws will very likely prohibit this kind of monitoring. Italy explicitly states that using electronic surveillance to track employee productivity is illegal; in Germany, courts have ruled that employers may deploy keystroke logging tools only in exceptional cases where they suspect employees are involved in serious criminal offenses, among other exceptions.

Image source: negativespace free stock photo — a woman office worker working on a Mac computer (illustration)

Meta doubles down on AI, reshaping internal work patterns

According to BBC, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has recently pledged to increase spending on AI projects, with plans to invest about $140 billion in AI by 2026.

Zuckerberg previously indicated that 2026 will be a year in which AI dramatically changes the way work is done. The company has already doubled down on AI technology. In addition to Zuckerberg himself trying to use Claude to write code, the company has also rolled out the Token Legend leaderboard to record the amount of tokens employees use when using AI tools as a performance metric.

• Related report: Meta doubles down on AI: Zuckerberg uses Claude to code, employees kick off a Token consumption battle to hit KPIs

Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth said in an internal memo that the company will strengthen internal data collection to accelerate its AI agent transformation initiative.

A Meta employee who recently left the company revealed that Meta’s internal tracking tools are the company’s latest approach to promoting AI. As Meta shifts funding toward AI R&D, internal employees expect further layoffs in the future. Meta has just decided to cut 10% of its global workforce by the end of May, meaning about 8,000 people will lose their jobs.