Italy Fines Meta €805 Million Over Android Photo Access

OPA WIRE, Nov 14 (OPA) — Italy's Data Protection Authority announced the €805 million ($887 million) penalty on Tuesday, targeting a Facebook feature that suggests photos and videos from device galleries for posts. Regulators stated that Meta failed to properly inform users about the data collection, relying instead on a single app-wide authorization that obscured the feature's actual scope.

The watchdog gave Meta 60 days to disable the feature by default and secure explicit, separate consent from users. Regulators cited the massive scale of affected accounts, ongoing violations for users who had not updated the app, and what they characterized as Meta's lack of cooperation during the investigation.

A Meta spokesperson strongly rejected the decision, confirming the company plans to appeal. The company defended the tool as a straightforward feature requiring device-level permissions that users can modify at any time through their settings.

The Italian penalty follows a separate legal blow last month, when a US judge in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $25 billion after finding the company misled the public about its handling of user data.