Italy fines Meta €805m over Facebook’s access to Android photos
Italy’s data protection authority, the Garante, has fined Meta €805m, or about $887m. It says the Facebook app for Android accessed photos, videos and their metadata on Italian users’ phones without specific consent or proper notice. The decision, first reported in English by Reuters, targets a gallery suggestions feature available since 2023. While users scroll Facebook, […] This story continues at The Next Web
Italy’s data protection authority, the Garante, has fined Meta €805m , or about $887m. It says the Facebook app for Android accessed photos, videos and their metadata on Italian users’ phones without specific consent or proper notice.
The decision, first reported in English by Reuters , targets a gallery suggestions feature available since 2023. While users scroll Facebook, it offers photos and videos from their phone as ideas for posts.
The Garante found that Facebook asked for gallery access with one permission for the whole app. That request followed a vague prompt to enable other features. Users could not tell they were also switching on gallery suggestions.
Meta’s EU base is in Ireland, and under GDPR the Irish regulator usually leads. Meta argued the case belonged there. The Garante disagreed, because it acted under ePrivacy rules, which have no one-stop shop.
The rule it applied, Article 122 of Italy’s privacy code, treats a smartphone as part of a person’s private sphere. Any access to what the phone holds needs free and informed consent. It applies even if no data leaves the phone and no harm is done.
The regulator said about 20 million Android users in Italy were affected. It also weighed a 2019 decision against Meta and what it called poor cooperation. Changes Meta made after the complaint counted in its favour, but the Garante called them late and limited to users who update the app.
The fine equals about 0.47% of Meta’s global turnover. Within 60 days, Meta must ask for separate, specific consent for the feature. It must also keep the feature off by default, even for users who already granted access.
The probe did not examine whether gallery content was used to train AI, which Meta denies. The Garante will look separately at a cloud processing feature launched in 2026.
The penalty is close to the €825m Dutch fine on Uber , though below Meta’s €1.2bn GDPR fine over data transfers. Meta is also tangling with Italy over a ruling on publisher payments .
Reuters said Meta was not immediately available for comment.
