Italy's data protection agency fined Meta €805 million (approximately $880–$887 million) for allegedly accessing photographs, videos, and related metadata belonging to Italian Android users without obtaining specific consent or properly informing them1,2,3.
The fine follows an investigation into a Facebook feature introduced in 2023 called "Get suggestions from your gallery while browsing Facebook," which allows the platform to suggest photos and videos stored on users' phones as potential posts. The regulator found that Facebook requested a single, general permission to access users' photo galleries without clearly explaining that this also enabled the gallery-suggestion feature. The function was activated by default, and the permission could allow the app to access the entire photo archive on an Android device, including associated metadata.
Italy's data protection agency gave Meta 60 days to make the feature opt-in and keep it disabled by default.
The Italian fine lands amid a separate, larger U.S. case: a New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay $25 billion after a jury found it liable for misleading residents about how it collected and protected personal data and prevented harmful content from spreading on its platforms. That case stemmed from allegations linked to the company's data privacy practices and followed a lengthy legal battle.
Meta also faces a pending civil complaint filed in San Francisco Superior Court by a coalition of four nonprofit organizations seeking an emergency injunction that would halt next-generation AI model training and deployment at five companies, including Meta[1].
ANALYSIS The Italian penalty adds a substantial financial consequence to a widening set of regulatory and legal actions confronting Meta across multiple jurisdictions, with the 60-day remediation deadline creating a near-term operational requirement for the company's Android app.