Italy hits Meta with record $887m fine over Facebook photo access

Italy's data privacy regulator has fined Meta 805 million euros ($887m), accusing the company of accessing users' photos without their consent through the Facebook app on Android devices.

Garante, the Italian data protection authority, said on Saturday that the app "accessed photos, videos and associated metadata stored on Italian users' smartphones without specific consent and without informing them".

The case centers on a Facebook feature called "Get suggestions from gallery when browsing Facebook", which proposes photos and videos from a phone's gallery for posting while the user browses the app. The regulator said the feature breaches the Italian law that implements the European Union's ePrivacy directive.

According to Garante, the way the app gathers consent is too generic, leaving users unable to fully understand the specific permissions they grant when they accept. The suggestions option was also switched on by default rather than being something users actively chose.

The penalty of 805 million euros is by far the largest fine the Italian regulator has ever imposed. Garante estimated that around 20 million Italian Android users could have been affected by the feature's default setting and unclear consent process.

The authority has ordered Meta to correct the unclear consent notification and to stop enabling the option by default. It also pointed to a "lack of cooperation" from the company during the proceedings, noting that an earlier violation, which led to a fine in 2019, factored into its decision.

The fine amounts to roughly 0.47 percent of Meta's global turnover. The regulator noted that the proceedings did not examine whether the content might have been used to train artificial intelligence systems, a practice Meta denies.

Meta has not yet publicly commented on the decision. The company retains the right to appeal the regulator's ruling.