Italy Fines Meta 805 Million Euros Over Facebook Photo Access
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Italy's data privacy authority, known as the Garante, has fined Meta 805 million euros ($887 million) for accessing photos and videos on Android users' phones without their specific consent. The regulator announced the penalty Saturday, according to Al Jazeera.
The BBC reported that Meta has been given 60 days to switch the feature off by default and to ask users for permission separately. Meta had not publicly commented as of Saturday, Al Jazeera reported, and it has the right to appeal.
What the regulator says Facebook did
The case centers on a Facebook app feature called “Get suggestions from gallery when browsing Facebook.” It offers photos and videos from a phone's gallery as ideas for posts while a person scrolls through the app.
The Garante said the Android app reached photos, videos and related metadata stored on Italian users' phones without specific consent and without telling people. According to the BBC, Facebook asked for access to photo galleries through a single app-wide permission. The regulator said the notice shown beforehand did not make clear that the permission would also let Facebook generate suggestions from gallery photos.
The authority also said the way the app gathers consent is too generic for users to understand what they are agreeing to, and that the suggestions option was switched on by default. It concluded that the feature breaks the Italian law that implements the European Union's ePrivacy directive.
Why it matters for users
The regulator suggested that roughly 20 million Italian Android users could have been affected. The BBC reported that the authority took into account “the high number of people affected” and said the practice was continuing for people who had not updated the app and for those who had already agreed to the system.
In practical terms, the ruling targets two things: a permission request that bundled broad gallery access into one prompt, and a suggestion feature that was active unless people turned it off. Meta must fix the unclear consent notice and stop the feature from being enabled by default.
The Garante said the proceedings did not examine whether content might be used to train artificial intelligence, which Meta denies, Al Jazeera reported.
How big the fine is
Al Jazeera said the amount is by far the largest fine the Italian regulator has ever imposed, and roughly 0.47 percent of Meta's global turnover. The BBC described it as among the largest an Italian authority has levied on a technology company.
The regulator also pointed to what it called a “lack of cooperation” by Meta. Al Jazeera reported that an earlier violation, which led to a fine in 2019, was a contributing factor in the decision.
What happens next
The 60-day period starts the clock for Meta to change how the feature works in Italy and to collect consent in a separate, clearer step. The company can still challenge the decision. Meta, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, had not responded publicly to the decision when the reports were published, and the BBC said it had reached out for comment.
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Around Prague, based on reporting by Al Jazeera, BBC News
Cover photo: LPS.1 / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
