Meta wants to track its employees – to replace them with AI in the future?
In April 2026, Meta announced the company’s next step: The installation of a tracking software on its employees’ desktops to train its AI. Is this already the end of privacy and the beginning of surveillance in our workplace? In this post you can find out more about Meta’s recent announcement and its implications for privacy.
Meta tracks employees
On April 21st 2026, Meta, the company behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp (by the way, if this is the final nail in the coffin for you, here are great Instagram alternatives and WhatsApp alternatives, announced its plan to install a tracking software on its employees desktops. As reported by Reuters, the tracking will include the employees’ mouse movements, clicking buttons and navigating dropdown menus. Moreover, the tracking software will periodically take screenshots of the employees’ screens. A way to object to that is not given. The company further stated that it will protect sensitive data. However, it did not specify what this means exactly and how they will protect this sensitive data.
The aim of the tracking software – called Model Capability Initiaitve (MCI) – is to train its AI models so the AI learns how humans perform worktasks and interact with computers. In short, Meta’s AI is to be fed with behavioural data in order to learn how to replicate human worktasks autonomously.
Sounds dystopian? Meta’s announcement raises the question whether this is the end of privacy and the start of surveillance in the workplace – and it could be the next step in replacing office workers all around the world. So, are we heading straight towards a dystopy of total surveillance?
Meta’s AI strategy
The strategic move to track its employees’ desktops is part of Meta’s bigger strategy to focus on and to implement AI as the company has doubled its investment in it. The rollout of Meta AI started in 2023 when it introduced its Meta AI in WhatsApp – which you can’t turn off. We already know that Big Tech companies, like Meta, offer their services for free because they use our data for ad targeting. In 2025, Meta confirmed that its AI was partially trained on its users’ posts on Facebook and Instagram.
As a consequence of Meta’s new AI roll-out, the Silicon Valley tech giant is bending down to shareholders wishes’ by making billions in revenue each year – and is now planning to cut its workforce in the US with the first layoffs reportedly beginning in May this year. Specifically, the plan is to lay off 10% – around 8000 people – of the company’s employees, as disclosed by Meta on April 23rd 2026.
And this seems to be just the beginning: While in March Meta had listed over 800 job offers on its website, they have now been reduced to merely seven.
Meta is only one company among many that joins the race for AI. Every big tech company is competing to develop the fastest and most developed artificial intelligence model. We as digital natives can observe this race as more and more social media platforms have been taken over by AI.
Some have reported that the company has become “obsessed with AI” as this is part of its future strategy. Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, even stated that 2026 will be “the year that AI dramatically changes the way we work”. What’s more: Zuckerberg does not make a secret of his future plans by declaring: We’re starting to see projects that used to take big teams now be accomplished by a single, very talented person. It is clear what he means: Humans are to be replaced by AI as the new workforce.
Meta’s announcement, however, also raises bigger concerns regarding surveillance and privacy in the workplace. Because, historically, tracking employees was not really a good sign as it has been used to detect non-work related activities or misconduct. Amazon, for example is infamously known for its intense surveillance of its employees.
Privacy in the workplace
Privacy is a human right. Accordingly, employees have the fundamental right to privacy in their workplace as this is part of a healthy and secure working environment. Moreover, it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure a safe environment. However, there is a fine line between an employee’s privacy and the information an employer needs to know or monitor, for salary statements or performance review purposes, for example. Yet, the right to privacy remains and total monitoring can increase stress which can diminish the employee’s working morale.
Meta’s new tracking plan may be highly unethical, but legal in the US. In Europe, however, tracking your employees would be likely illegal due to Europe’s strong data protection laws like the GDPR. In the digital age we live in, and with the new rise of AI that has increased the possibility to monitor employees, new challenges need to be taken into consideration. In addition to this, the need of laws protecting employees’ privacy is as urgent as ever.
Final thoughts
Privacy matters, especially in the workplace. But more companies are likely to follow Meta’s lead and start tracking its employees. This could be the end of privacy at work. Thus, we need privacy-oriented companies that value privacy and data protection and show that there are alternatives to Big Tech companies like Meta and Google.
One of these alternatives is Tuta, a European company that builds quantum-safe encrypted email, calendar and drive solutions. The provider’s servers are not only based in Germany, but also GDPR compliant. Plus, Tuta does not track you – neither you as a user, not me as an employee. Together we can fight for a better web, one were we as people are respected!
