Meta is scaling back a controversial programme that tracks employees’ keyboard and mouse activity after staff raised concerns about privacy, battery life and control over when data is captured.

The company introduced the programme in April, when it began installing software called the Model Capability Initiative, or MCI, on work computers. The tool collects mouse and keyboard activity across work-related apps and websites, and occasionally takes screenshots. Meta has said the data is intended to help train AI systems, including agents that can replicate human behaviour on computers.

The move prompted internal criticism from employees, with one describing the initiative as “very dystopian”. Staff also complained that the software consumed excessive battery power and, according to reports, caused internet usage to surge for some employees working from home.

Meta is now making concessions. According to an internal memo reported by Reuters, employees will be able to pause the activity tracking for up to 30 minutes at a time. Some workers will also be able to request exemptions from the programme altogether, including those who work remotely and face bandwidth or charging issues, as well as employees handling sensitive material.

The memo was reportedly written by Stephane Kasriel, a vice president in Meta’s Superintelligence Labs unit. In it, Kasriel said the team behind MCI had made “several optimisations” to reduce the tool’s impact on laptop battery life.

“While we remain confident in the privacy protections we put in place at launch, ‌which went through several layers of risk review, we have heard your concerns about personal data on work devices, battery life, and wanting more control over when capturing happens,” Kasriel wrote in the memo.

Meta’s leadership has previously defended the initiative. During a May staff meeting, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company was “in a phase where the AI models learn from watching really smart people do things,” adding that “the average intelligence of the people who are at this company is significantly higher than the average set of people you can get to do tasks if you’re working through [third-party] contractors.”

Zuckerberg also told staff that humans were not reviewing the tracked data. He said “Content is sort of stripped out as much as is possible,” and that nothing was being used for “surveillance or performance tracking.”

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The changes suggest Meta is seeking to preserve the AI training programme while responding to staff unease over how far workplace data collection should go. The company’s position remains that the system has privacy protections in place, but the new pause controls and exemption process mark a retreat from the original approach of installing MCI across work machines without the same level of employee control.

The concessions also come against a difficult internal backdrop. The May staff meeting took place before a fresh round of layoffs affecting 8,000 jobs, adding further sensitivity to employee concerns about workplace monitoring and how internal data might be used.