Meta to start capturing employee mouse movements, keystrokes for AI training

dlx 446 points 345 comments April 21, 2026
www.reuters.com · View on Hacker News

Alt link: https://tech.yahoo.com/ai/meta-ai/articles/exclusive-meta-st...

Discussion Highlights (20 comments)

aanet

> Meta (META.O), opens new tab is installing new tracking software on U.S.-based employees’ computers to capture mouse movements, clicks and keystrokes for use in training its artificial-intelligence models, part of a broad initiative to build AI agents that can perform work tasks autonomously, the company told staffers in internal memos seen by Reuters. > The tool will run on a list of work-related apps and websites and will also take occasional snapshots of the content on employees’ screens for context, according to one memo, posted by a staff AI research scientist on Tuesday in a dedicated internal channel for the company's model-building Meta SuperIntelligence Labs team. ALL YOUR DATA IS BELONG TO US ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

turtleyacht

Training on future vi macros. Just kk1Gi// file.js<Esc>M/func<Enter>o let<Esc>`` Taking screenshots too.

dbgrman

After all the layoffs, labeling people as underperformers while laying off, etc. can they stoop any lower? Why TF would anyone in their right mind would want to join this company?

xvxvx

‘Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said the data collected would not be used for performance assessments or any other purpose’ Horseshit. 1. Employees are being asked to train AI to replace them. 2. Performance assessments will 100% be impacted. No question. Thinking back on the OTT interview experience that Facebook helped pioneer, imagine making it through that, getting paid a massive sum of money BUT barely getting by on it because of the location, then they drop this crap on you? Big Brother is always watching.

general1465

When you will think about it, what actually useful data are you getting from this exercise? It is like strapping camera on a manual laborer so you can see what he sees, but you don't get data about the touch and grip and you won't get data about why he is doing specific moves.

instig007

As everybody knows, key strokes and mouse movements are the things that solve problems, definitely the data worth capturing for AI training.

instig007

As everybody knows, key strokes and mouse movements are the things that solve problems, definitely the data worth capturing for AI training.

sharts

They have nothing else to do. Someone needs to be able to justify their position by creating stupid changes like this to create a line item on their LinkedIn. Meanwhile, nobody seems focused on capturing CEO’s data for AI training.

toomanyrichies

Every day I grow more and more glad that I turned down a Meta offer. It was probably a hire-to-fire offer anyway, not based on any engineering prowess on my part. Still, I couldn't be more relieved I dodged that bullet.

wrs

>data collected would not be used for performance assessments or any other purpose besides model training And you expect Meta employees , of all people, to believe this?

tristanj

Original source: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulat...

bradlys

Data collection isn’t new. The training is.

jmull

I like to imagine they’ll mostly capture meta employees using AIs to do work. Then they’ll deploy models trained on this, and begin capturing employees using AIs that are good at using AIs to do work. Repeat a few times and they’ll start capturing the keystrokes from people mashing their heads into keyboards with dispair and exclaiming, “Why can’t these models do anything anymore!!”

travelalberta

Wasn't it a few months ago that some engineer leaked that XAI was building 'Human Emulators'. This is either Meta's attempt at the same or just a blatant lie to make sure their engineers aren't slacking off. I've heard the workload has more than doubled for those who weren't laid off which is the only reason I think it might not be a employee monitoring system as I don't think anyone there can afford to not work hard.

nitwit005

> to improve the company's models in areas where they still struggle, like choosing from dropdown menus and using keyboard shortcuts Seems like a strange approach in general. I'd have assumed you'd just have it use accessibility features to get at things, if there is no other interface.

loeg

For context, when the article says "a list of work-related apps and websites," this includes Google properties like gmail, docs, etc, and social media websites like Facebook and Instagram, with no provision for excluding personal accounts.

fidotron

Meta going all in on their brand with this. Someone had to do it, distasteful though it may be. Could be quite hilarious what it learns in the process.

jtemplestein

I wonder if this screen + mouse + keyboard (+ camera + speaker + mic) interface is really the right level of abstraction to model a “digital entity” Sure, you can do everything a human can, but it also seems VERY inefficient As an alternative, maybe you could just do network in/out?

rvz

Meta can even afford to destroy themselves and their own employees. More proof that they do not care about you at all. This is Meta's way of moving fast and destroying everything at all costs.

dagmx

This is going to be a huge chilling factor for employees. You’d no longer be able to disent, or discuss anything non-work related with even the slightest expectation of privacy. Yes they could have accessed logs before but there’s a difference between directed checking after incidents and active surveillance at scale.

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