Employees at Build a Rocket Boy, the studio behind the game MindsEye, have taken legal action against the company’s management over claims that monitoring software was secretly installed on their work devices without their knowledge or consent.

The legal proceedings are being led by members of the IWGB Game Workers Union, as first reported by Game Developer. The workers allege that management installed an AI-powered surveillance tool called Teramind onto employee hardware. According to the union, staff were not told what the software was doing or what data it was collecting.

Teramind describes itself on its official website as a tool that “enables proactive protection against insider threats, data breaches, productivity inefficiencies, and compliance challenges.” The program is capable of logging keystrokes, recording screen activity, and capturing microphone audio.

The software was removed from employee devices in March, following a collective grievance that was signed by 40 members of staff. However, the union says management has since refused to reveal what data was gathered, how it was stored, or why the software was installed in the first place.

In a statement, the IWGB said the union “alleges that BARB’s use of the software violates both data protection laws and the workforce’s basic dignity, exceeding the legitimate remit of monitoring workers’ productivity or safeguarding the company’s security by recording individuals in their homes and without their consent.”

The union also pointed to an internal meeting, later leaked to the press, in which Build a Rocket Boy CEO Mark Gerhard and co-founder Leslie Benzies reportedly confirmed that Teramind had been put on employee machines without workers being informed.

This is not the first time the IWGB has filed legal action against the studio. Back in October 2025, the union accused Build a Rocket Boy of failing to carry out fair consultation before making redundancies and of multiple cases of unfair dismissal. At the time, the union estimated that between 250 and 300 workers across the company had been laid off.