Meta won't track its workers' clicks - but only for half an hour at a time

Meta is scaling back its plan to start tracking its employees' computer activity, according to an internal memo sent on Tuesday.

In April the company received criticism from its own staff after it announced a new tool would log their keystrokes and mouse clicks to train its AI models.

Now, according to Reuters , new controls will allow employees to pause the data collection for "up to 30 minutes at a time" as well as request exemptions from the initiative altogether.

It follows weeks of backlash from employees, including some who started a petition against the move which now has more than 1,500 signatures.

During the initial announcement of the tool , called the Model Capability Initiative (MCI), Meta told the BBC: "If we're building agents to help people complete everyday tasks using computers, our models need real examples of how people actually use them."

It added that the data was "not used for any other purpose," and the tool had "safeguards in place to protect sensitive content".

But workers were not impressed, with one Meta employee, who asked not to be identified, telling the BBC that having their actions train AI models felt "very dystopian" - as workers expected a slew of additional job cuts.

Meta has laid off around 2,000 employees this year. In April the company told employees it planned to cut 10% of its workforce - roughly 8,000 staff.