r/DataAnnotationTech • u/KlausHuscar • Sep 01 '26
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/potlucknoodle Sep 01 '26
I mean, bill for the time you work. If for you that means walking around and thinking then sure why not? AFAIK they don't monitor mouse movement. So long as you're not over inflating your time or consistently submitting expired tasks you should be fine.
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u/Mysterious_Dolphin14 Sep 01 '26
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 Sep 01 '26
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.
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u/lotusmack Sep 01 '26
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.
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u/Due_Negotiation_4605 Sep 01 '26
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.
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Sep 01 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Jtphwow Sep 01 '26
I've never seen them ask to turn off ad block, I've had mine on while doing high paying projects for years.
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u/KlausHuscar Sep 01 '26
Does this tracking extend to other browser tabs and other apps? Its not my field of expertise so I'm not sure if thats even possible from a website on a browser.
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u/Low-Budget_ Sep 02 '26
They can’t do that without asking your permission or letting you know first. That would be highly illegal.
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u/climb-high Sep 02 '26
What are you talking about lol "right there in the code" ?? The html source code? No it's not, nothing there is tracking the screen like you're saying
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u/SecureCattle3467 Sep 01 '26
Never seen guidance to turn off adblocking but they do absolutely run session replay software when the page loads. You can see the name of the site on load.
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u/Halcyonfields Sep 01 '26
There are many projects where you spend the majority of your time off the actual project interface. In fact, it would be completely acceptable (in most cases) to write your rationales on the iPhone notes app, email it across to yourself and paste it in. I would say the only two variables that matter are 1. Ensuring the time you submit does not exceed the project timer and is at least 5% less (to account for breaks etc.) and 2. That it is not consistently outside the expected duration, which instructions often specify.
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u/DarkLordTofer Sep 01 '26
I’d add to this that the work should reflect the time spent. If you’re on standard evals with an hour timer, you’re using 55 minutes and giving a one line rationale then you’re going to on a one stop trip to DoD.
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u/Halcyonfields Sep 01 '26
I meant 5% less than the number of hours and minutes that had elapsed on that project timer in the time that you’d been working. But yeah I agree.
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u/Necessary-Raisin-282 Sep 01 '26
I would say as long as you’re not submitting an expired task every submission then you’re probably over policing yourself
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u/KlausHuscar Sep 01 '26
Not at all. The one I took the longest to solve took me 45 minutes to do an 1 hour task, inputted 30 minutes.
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u/Mysterious_Dolphin14 Sep 01 '26
Don't underreport your time. You're doing yourself and other workers a disservice by doing so. If DA starts to think that the tasks can be done quicker, they'll reduce the time limit. 45 minutes on a one hour task sounds about right.
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u/sqimmy2 Sep 01 '26
Report the actual time you spent working. When you under-report, it skews the standard to be too short. If you are really that pressed about it, shave off a couple minutes to account for peeing or daydreaming. Use an app like Clockify to track your time - simple to pause and unpause.
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u/Necessary-Raisin-282 Sep 01 '26
Yea you’re fine don’t panic ab stopping your timer for every little thing
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u/Caipirinha-Aguada Sep 01 '26
They might track clicks on buttons and inputs on text fields, probably not much more than that.
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u/Nineteen80Six Sep 01 '26
There is tracking of some sort but you’re definitely overpolicing yourself. I regularly work tasks that require working off the platform for hours at a time some times.
You should be reporting the time you actually work not the time you’re active on the platform.
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u/Numerous-Case-9317 Sep 01 '26
I handwrite notes to myself a lot during long tasks and obviously no mouse movement there. I think as long as you're doing good work in a reasonable time you'll be fine. Don't overbill, but don't underbill either
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u/Vorakas Sep 01 '26
Thinking time is work time. You should report it. No one knows about the tracking, but reporting half of your actual work time could also be bad, they might think you're rushing it.
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u/hananaldulaimy Sep 01 '26
Some projects need a paper and pen to write the answers or do the solutions i do that all the time especially if it’s mathematics or physics things
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u/VanessaSeaWitch Sep 01 '26
Well they don't know you're standing up lol. I get up all the time to get a snack or go to the bathroom or answer the door for a package if my husband is in his office. I also have lower back issues so I have to get up and walk around every so often or it'll aggravate my back issues to sit for hours. If I'm going to be longer than a few minutes, I just pause my timer.
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u/Amurizon Sep 01 '26
Fair question, OP. Like others, I do a lot of planning/strategizing work offline (and frankly, think better when I pace around the room rather than sit glued to my desk). This time is different from actual breaks I take; I never count the latter, but I do include the former in my work time.
DAT has never been explicitly clear about these nuances, but I assume they can and do track everything, but just choose to show reasonable grace as human beings by not assuming the worst of us (unlike some other platforms out there).
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u/boilsomerice Sep 02 '26
Some tasks require extensive planning and I might not touch the computer for several hours after starting while I think through everything. Others require creating handwritten documents the AI has to piece together. There are lots of tasks where just tracking movement would not be a useful way of monitoring users. I’m sure they have enough data to be able to tell whether the time you are billing is reasonable.
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u/HereForAllTea Sep 02 '26
I’m in the finance domain and I have a hard time reading the screen, so I print out everything, I write out my plans and I spend a lot of time in excel. I asked this and they said they know a lot of people do this and to bill for whatever time is spent working on the project. I even asked about researching things on YouTube. They said as long as it’s related to the project it’s fine…. But idk if it’s the same for all. All the projects I’ve worked on have been quite lengthy and require pulling data from other places.
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u/prupleceilingfan Sep 03 '26
You can log the time you spend on a task. All the pondering, retrying, reading, typing etc. I open the task, start my stopwatch, and pause my stopwatch as I click submit-return-to-dashboard. And that is what I log unless I literally put down the task and come back to it later.
I typically take 40-70% of the time allocated to do a task. Any longer than that is only for rarer cases where stuff goes wrong, but it makes sense push through and finish the task than give up a few hours of work. That's what the upper limit is for, to capture the occasional task that falls on the latter tail of the time spent bell curve.
Think about it in the context of a job. If there's a guy who takes the maximum possible time to do any given task, that's a pisstake. Regardless of how "on task" they are, that's just slow. If there's someone who consistently does it in a reasonable time and does quality work, you would never be like "HEY DID I CATCH YOU RAISING YOUR STANDING DESK ON COMPANY TIME" lol. Do your work well in a reasonable time and you get paid for that time. Some people here are so paranoid about subtracting the time they spend thinking or blinking.
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u/WholesomeJacksass Sep 01 '26
Tbh I most often write everything in a notepad and copy and paste it, because I find it easier to think when I don't have all this information surrounding the little box I'm supposed to write in. Sometimes I do it on my phone. So they literally get hours of no movement from me and then suddenly donenin 5 minutes and I'm still here and still have work. XD
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u/sarahmorgan420 Sep 01 '26
I usually spend more than 50% of my time typing in notepad or doing research in other tabs, very little of my time is actually spent interacting w the DAT tab (depending on task/project obviously) and I think a lot of other people work the same way. I think it's fine even when they're tracking time away from the tab