Meta is tweaking its controversial employee tracking program called Model Capability Initiative (MCI). The company will now allow workers to pause surveillance for up to 30 minutes when handling personal matters. This comes after employees protested monitoring of mouse clicks and keystrokes in the name of AI training, which began just before Meta laid off 8,000 workers.

While some employees can opt out, options remain limited. Remote workers with bandwidth issues, those handling sensitive material, and people without consistent power may request exemption. Most employees will still have their computer activity tracked. Meta also improved the software's battery usage to address some employee complaints.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended the program in a company-wide meeting, claiming watching "really smart people" work helps AI models improve quickly. He insisted the data is purely for AI training, not surveillance. Zuckerberg added that if the program works, "we'll probably do more things like it" in the future.