Meta workers can opt out of being tracked at work up to 30 min

Meta is scaling back its employee tracking initiative after weeks of staff backlash, now allowing workers to pause data collection for up to 30 minutes at a time and request full exemptions from the program. The Model Capability Initiative, which logs keystrokes and mouse clicks to train AI models, faced criticism from over 1,500 employees who signed a petition against it, citing privacy concerns and complaints about excessive battery drain on work devices. The company has added these new controls following the negative employee response and acknowledgment of concerns about personal data protection and device performance.