Meta investigates internal exposure of employee monitoring data

Meta has confirmed that information gathered from its employee-monitoring initiative was unintentionally exposed to other staff members inside the company. The data, which includes keystrokes, mouse clicks and screen content from U.S. employees, was stored in roughly 45,000 internal tables that could be accessed without restriction, according to an internal security notice seen by staff.

A company spokesperson said the program was designed with privacy safeguards and that, so far, there is no evidence that any employee accessed the data improperly. "We have carefully designed this program with privacy safeguards," the spokesperson said, adding that there is "no indication at this time that any data was improperly accessed by Meta employees."

The exposure was flagged in a notice sent to employees on Monday, prompting discussion on internal forums about how privacy reviews failed to prevent the breach. Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer, later posted that the incident would be reviewed and that the tracking program had not met the standards set by the company’s privacy review.

The monitoring effort, known as the Model Capability Initiative, began in April and has faced internal opposition. More than 1,600 staff signed a petition warning that the data collection could create security and regulatory risks, and some engineers described the practice as an invasion of privacy. In response, Meta has started offering limited exemptions that allow employees to pause monitoring for sensitive tasks.

The company says the issue has now been marked as closed, indicating that corrective actions have been taken.