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Meta to start capturing employee mouse movements, keystrokes for AI training

reuters.com

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Re: Meta to start capturing employee mouse movements, keystrokes for AI training

#201

Post by gdhkgdhkvff »

Blackthorn wrote: post #169
dagmx wrote: post #42

This is going to be a huge chilling factor for employees. You’d no longer be able to disent, or discuss anything non-work related with even the slightest expectation of privacy. Yes they could have accessed logs before but there’s a difference between directed checking after incidents and active surveillance at scale.

Couldn't have happened to a more deserving group of people. My irony detector is sparking so badly I think it's about to blow.

This is a naive take on this. Do you think it stops with just metamates(lmao that’s what they call themselves) being surveilled? Nope. This is the exact type of thing that software IC’s should reject in solidarity. Being happy with BadCompanyX trampling employee expectations directly allows for GoodCompanyY to enact the same policies.

Re: Meta to start capturing employee mouse movements, keystrokes for AI training

#202

Post by BeetleB »

cyclopeanutopia wrote: post #114
BeetleB wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You’d no longer be able to disent, or discuss anything non-work related with even the slightest expectation of privacy. When I joined the workforce a long time ago, I went in with the mindset that: Their property, their equipment, their right to monitor (or even keylog). I was pleasantly surprised to find that not to be the case, but I've always believed in their right to do so. Why do people expect to have a right…

I cannot understand how can anyone hold such outrageously antihuman beliefs. Governments, corporations and any other organizations should all exist FOR the people, not the other way around. American-style capitalism truly is a disease.

So, you're saying if I work at a factory, I should be able to use the factory equipment to build my stuff?

Re: Meta to start capturing employee mouse movements, keystrokes for AI training

#203

Post by engineer_22 »

dagmx wrote: post #42

This is going to be a huge chilling factor for employees. You’d no longer be able to disent, or discuss anything non-work related with even the slightest expectation of privacy. Yes they could have accessed logs before but there’s a difference between directed checking after incidents and active surveillance at scale.

I don't know about you, but corporate has a message on my screen before I log in:

"this computer is property of WORK CORP, you have no expectation of private on this computer"

If you want privacy use a personal device....

Re: Meta to start capturing employee mouse movements, keystrokes for AI training

#204

Post by reverius42 »

simplyluke wrote: post #183
BeetleB wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You’d no longer be able to disent, or discuss anything non-work related with even the slightest expectation of privacy. When I joined the workforce a long time ago, I went in with the mindset that: Their property, their equipment, their right to monitor (or even keylog). I was pleasantly surprised to find that not to be the case, but I've always believed in their right to do so. Why do people expect to have a right…

It's absolutely their right, but it's a dramatic cultural departure from the history of the company. In the late 2010s/pre-covid it was very common for employees to port their personal cell phone number to their work phone and just not have a personal cell phone . The internal culture at the company was remarkably open for their size. That all went away by the time I left in 2022, and from what I've heard it has only…

What do you think caused the change from being so employee-friendly to so employee-hostile?

Re: Meta to start capturing employee mouse movements, keystrokes for AI training

#205

Post by Blackthorn »

gdhkgdhkvff wrote: post #201
Blackthorn wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't have happened to a more deserving group of people. My irony detector is sparking so badly I think it's about to blow.

This is a naive take on this. Do you think it stops with just metamates(lmao that’s what they call themselves) being surveilled? Nope. This is the exact type of thing that software IC’s should reject in solidarity. Being happy with BadCompanyX trampling employee expectations directly allows for GoodCompanyY to enact the same policies.

I'm happy to see the metamates (lol) receiving the same pain they inflict on others. Maybe it will teach them a lesson in solidarity.

You can't have solidarity about a bad thing with the people who are doing the bad thing! They have to stop doing the bad thing first! That's how solidarity works!

Re: Meta to start capturing employee mouse movements, keystrokes for AI training

#206

Post by futuraperdita »

seanp2k2 wrote: post #159
futuraperdita wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A handful of engineers were let go as the result of a re-alignment, and their AI counterparts are actively maintaining their code. I know you’re in India, but in the US, could this not be considered intellectual property theft on “right of publicity”? Your persona and working style is one of your core values you bring to market; building a simulacrum of that is not something I expect to be part of the “your output…

>I will give a company the right to try to reproduce my output. But my very likeness and modus operandi? No. You don't need to "give" them anything -- they already have everything they need due to basically anything you do, especially at work, especially while using company equipment, being legally considered "works made for hire" https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html + https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ30…

> Is it fully legal and in the clear? Probably not. Will they still 100% get away with it and leave employees with no realistic options or upside attempting to fight it? Of course.

I am aware of "how the C-Suite thinks about this type of thing", but this is also a good example to surface here of what to redline in future employment contracts. Yes, that will likely shut you out of a lot of places, but the opposite is beyond learned helplessness: it is capitulation to a future that will not end well for the tech worker.

Re: Meta to start capturing employee mouse movements, keystrokes for AI training

#207

Post by Teever »

bsilvereagle wrote: post #193
Blackthorn wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't have happened to a more deserving group of people. My irony detector is sparking so badly I think it's about to blow.

There are large organizations at Meta focused on basic research & design (FAIR, Open Compute, PyTorch, etc) and giving back to the community. Not everyone is maximizing revenue.

Like all of us these people make a cost-benefit analysis when it comes to their choice of employer and how much it suits their purposes and personal priorities like giving back to the community.

This is just another factor they’ll have to grapple with in their analysis.

I’m sure some of them will find it a bridge too far but not enough to really matter. The work will continue as will the expansion of Meta and the negative externalities that it produces.

Re: Meta to start capturing employee mouse movements, keystrokes for AI training

#208

Post by Lihh27 »

PradeetPatel wrote: post #83
dagmx wrote: post #42

This is going to be a huge chilling factor for employees. You’d no longer be able to disent, or discuss anything non-work related with even the slightest expectation of privacy. Yes they could have accessed logs before but there’s a difference between directed checking after incidents and active surveillance at scale.

Tbh that's to be expected, the work machine is the company's property and there shouldn't be any expectation of privacy. I work at a tech firm in India, and we are encouraged to create skills.md based on the traits of our colleagues, with the intention of reducing key personnel risk. A handful of engineers were let go as the result of a re-alignment, and their AI counterparts are actively maintaining their code. I wo…

skills.md heh they serialized you into a config file and used it to boot your replacement. could've at least picked a better extension.

Re: Meta to start capturing employee mouse movements, keystrokes for AI training

#210

Post by [deleted] »

Archonical wrote: post #81
casualscience wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They absolutely do, wtf are you talking about. Also people use their work accounts and laptops to read their w2 and other sensitive info.

It at least used to be true. In order to accept the job offer, you would have to make (or have) a Facebook account.

[deleted]
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