What happened when Meta tried to collect employee data

When employees at Meta learned that the company would start collecting their data to train AI models, there was a swift backlash. Many of them openly pushed back on Meta’s plan to capture keystrokes and mouse movements, circulating an online petition and urging their colleagues to sign. Within just two months—and after an internal leak—Meta had put an end to the program, at least for now. A new report from Business Insider chronicles what happened internally as Meta shared its plans with employees, revealing just how quickly the program was shelved over employee concerns and a breach in data privacy. (Meta declined to comment when reached by Fast Company.) The idea to collect employee data reportedly came from the researchers in Meta’s AI division, who are largely siloed from the rest of the company. One of the researchers who spearheaded the program was Rylan Schaeffer, who reported to the company’s AI chief. When the program—which the company called the Model Capability Initiative (MCI)—was announced, it drew immediate outrage from employees, especially when they learned it was mandatory and nobody could opt out. According to Business Insider, when a cybersecurity engineer raise…