Meta has suspended its controversial employee monitoring program after an internal security lapse left sensitive worker data exposed to other employees inside the company.
On Monday, June 22, 2026, a Meta engineer issued an internal security notice revealing that databases filled with information gathered through the program had been accessible to anyone within the company. Meta paused the initiative shortly after, notifying WIRED of the decision before informing its own staff.
The program at the center of the incident is the Model Compatibility Initiative (MCI), a tool Meta rolled out to US employees in April 2026. According to workers who had been petitioning against it, MCI collects computer inputs including mouse movements, click locations, keystrokes, and screen content. When the tool launched, employees had no option to opt out; that changed to a limited degree after internal protests.
Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton said the company has “no indication at this time that any data was improperly accessed by Meta employees” but confirmed the pause pending an investigation. “We have carefully designed this program with privacy safeguards,” Clayton said.
Meta executives had defended the data-gathering effort, arguing it was necessary to train AI systems to operate computer software the way humans do, and that employees provided the best examples for the AI to learn from.
The security lapse drew sharp criticism from workers in internal forums. A former employee who had been involved in pushing back against MCI called the incident “a mess” and said workers had anticipated something like this would happen. “When workers raised concerns, leadership doubled down and failed to acknowledge the risks workers raised about the safety and privacy of worker and customer data,” the person told WIRED.
The pause may signal a broader reckoning for Meta over the program, which had already faced sustained internal opposition over privacy, security, and personal liberty concerns since its launch.
Source: WIRED