Meta is stepping back from parts of a plan to log employee mouse movements, keystrokes and other computer actions for AI training, following weeks of internal dissent. An internal memo seen by Reuters on Tuesday outlined new controls, including the ability to pause the data collection for up to 30 minutes at a time and to request an exemption from the programme entirely.

Stephane Kasriel, a vice president in Meta’s Superintelligence Labs unit, wrote in the memo that the team behind the software had also introduced “several optimisations” to reduce its drain on laptop batteries, after complaints that the tracking was consuming so much data it was inflating home internet bills, the report states. “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 said.

The company announced last month that it was installing monitoring software on the computers of US-based employees to capture their on-screen actions. The data was intended to train artificial intelligence models, part of a wider push to build AI agents capable of carrying out workplace tasks on their own. The rollout, which coincided with a sweeping restructuring at Meta, drew fierce pushback. Some staff began referring to the company as an “Employee Data Extraction Factory.”

As per the report, the tracking effort could also deepen Meta’s regulatory exposure in the European Union, where technology firms are already embroiled in legal disputes over how they collect and use data.