Reported by Gold 101.3 FM, UAE’s No.1 Malayalam radio station.
Meta has scaled back parts of its controversial employee monitoring initiative following weeks of internal criticism over plans to collect workplace activity data for artificial intelligence training.
The company announced new measures that will give employees greater control over how data is collected from their work devices, after concerns were raised about privacy, battery consumption, and personal data usage.
New controls introduced for employees
According to an internal memo sent to staff, employees will now be able to temporarily pause activity monitoring for up to 30 minutes at a time. Workers will also have the option to request exemptions from the programme under certain circumstances.
The memo was authored by Stephane Kasriel, a senior executive within Meta’s Superintelligence Labs division, which is responsible for developing advanced AI systems.
Kasriel said the company had listened to employee feedback and implemented several changes to address concerns raised since the programme’s launch.
Concerns over privacy and device performance
Meta initially announced plans to install software on company computers used by employees in the United States. The software was designed to collect information including:
- Mouse movements
- Click patterns
- Keyboard activity
- Workflow interactions
The data was intended to help train future AI systems capable of performing workplace tasks autonomously.
However, the initiative quickly sparked criticism from employees, many of whom questioned the level of monitoring involved and the potential impact on privacy.
Staff members also reported that the software was affecting device performance, with some employees claiming it increased battery consumption and significantly raised internet data usage while working from home.
In response, Meta says it has introduced technical improvements aimed at reducing the software’s impact on battery life and network resources.
AI ambitions meet employee resistance
The monitoring programme forms part of Meta’s broader push to accelerate development of advanced artificial intelligence technologies.
The company has invested heavily in AI initiatives as it pursues the long-term goal of building intelligent digital agents capable of handling a wide range of professional and personal tasks.
However, the rollout coincided with major organisational changes and workforce restructuring across the company, leading to increased scrutiny from employees.
Some workers reportedly criticised the initiative internally, describing it as an excessive form of workplace surveillance and expressing concerns about how employee-generated data would be used in AI development.
Potential regulatory implications
The controversy could also attract attention from regulators, particularly in regions such as the European Union, where technology companies face increasingly strict rules regarding data collection, privacy, and artificial intelligence.
European regulators have already intensified scrutiny of how large technology firms gather and use data to train AI models, making workplace monitoring initiatives a potentially sensitive issue.
While Meta maintains that the programme includes multiple layers of privacy protection and risk review, the company’s decision to introduce additional controls suggests it is seeking to balance its AI ambitions with employee concerns over transparency and data rights.
As competition in artificial intelligence intensifies, the debate highlights the growing challenges technology companies face when sourcing the vast amounts of data needed to train next-generation AI systems while maintaining employee trust and regulatory compliance.
