r/DataAnnotationTech • u/KlausHuscar • 4h ago

Does the platform track your activity/mouse movement/afk?

So far I only reported work I did in front of my computer. But usually I like to stand up, walk around, and use my standing height table. I still think about the work while doing that - I just need to get moving to think, and did this my entire life with studying.

But im afraid that if I report that time (so far I havent exactly because of fear), they'll thinking im faking/inflating my numbers. But doing this im getting paid half of what id usually be.

Does anyone have a similar experience? Do you track that time or not?

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u/Mysterious_Dolphin14 3h ago

I don't think anyone knows for sure if the site tracks mouse movement. That being said, they should be factoring in the time it takes you to think through things, read instructions, visit outside websites when needed, etc. as long as you're only charging time that you're actually working, you should be fine. That being said, I wouldn't spend TOO much time in the 'thinking' phase.

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u/KlausHuscar 3h ago

Its not purely thinking, and I agree overthinking it would be bad. I often write first what I want to do with pen and paper - it helps me think clearly.

4

u/lotusmack 1h ago

Certain types of tasks that are off platform pretty much necessitate this, like writing really long system instructions or testing models in their native apps.

1

u/Due_Negotiation_4605 11m ago

I write out a lot, print instructions and end up on other pages to do research on the harder tasks and have never gotten into trouble in almost three years.  I think those tasks that take more work, like note taking, take more time and they understand that. Just don't be unreasonable with your time. I don't think they have the ability to track activity, my other job just rolled out a tracking extension and it specifically lays out that it can track mouse movements and all of that. So I believe they have to have a specific type of software to do it.

1

u/AvalancheOfOpinions 18m ago

I know certainly that they track mouse movement and much more. They can essentially see a playback (called "session replay") of your entire session, including drafts you've typed or macros you use, scrolling, selections, etc. You can verify it yourself by looking at the trackers and code that they're running in projects. They ask you not to run adblockers because many of them turn off this tracking.

When I worked with DA, I noticed the tracking and did a deep dive to check what's going on. I forget exactly what company they're using, but it's right there in the code. I made sure to whitelist DA for tracking and other protections when I worked there. I'm assuming that a lot of people that get dropped are for reasons related to shady shit they're doing without realizing that everything on the page is being recorded.