Meta employees in the United States are protesting against new software that tracks mouse movements, clicks, and keystrokes for AI training purposes. Several workers reportedly believe the company is using employee activity data to train AI agents that could eventually replace human roles. Employees in Meta offices across California and New York have also been putting up posters in common areas and bathrooms to encourage colleagues to support the campaign.
Employees at Meta’s offices in the United States (US) were met with an unusual sight: pamphlets criticizing the company’s workplace monitoring software appeared in meeting rooms, on vending machines, and even on bathroom walls.
The flyers carried the same message: “Don't want to work at the Employee Data Extraction Factory?” According to Reuters, the pamphlets directed workers to an online petition demanding that Facebook's owner discontinue the software program. The material also referenced the National Labor Relations Act, which protects employees organizing for improved workplace conditions.
The protest centers on Meta’s internal monitoring tool, the Model Capability Initiative (MCI), which the company reportedly began installing on employees’ work laptops in the US last month.
The software tracks mouse movements, clicks, keystrokes and periodic screenshots while workers use selected applications such as Gmail, GChat, VSCode and Meta’s in-house AI assistant, Metamate. The collected information is then used to train Meta’s AI systems to better understand how humans interact with computer interfaces, including navigating menus and using shortcuts.
“Selfishly, I don't want my screen scraped because it feels like an invasion of my privacy,” the engineer wrote, according to Wired.
“But zooming out, I don't want to live in a world where human employees or otherwise are exploited for their training data.”
Despite the criticism, Meta has continued to defend the program. Company spokesperson Andy Stone said the organization requires “real examples of how people actually use” computers to improve its AI systems, while also claiming that safeguards exist to protect sensitive information.
"If we're building agents to help people complete everyday tasks using computers, our models need real examples of how people actually use them, things like mouse movements, clicking buttons, and navigating dropdown menus," Stone was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Also Read: Meta Expands WhatsApp Liquid Glass Rollout After Months of Testing
The rollout has triggered unease among employees, particularly because it comes ahead of major layoffs. Meta is expected to reduce its workforce by nearly 10 percent on May 20, affecting around 8,000 employees out of its total of about 78,865.
Apart from public protests, some employees are said to be resisting the initiative more quietly by delaying the software's installation and ignoring repeated notifications urging them to activate it.