Italy fines Meta €805m over access to users’ photos without consent

Italian regulators have imposed a substantial fine of €805 million on social media giant Meta for alleged unauthorized access to users' photos and videos without their explicit consent. The penalty was announced by the Data Protection Authority in Italy, following an investigation into Meta's practices related to its "Get suggestions from gallery when browsing Facebook" feature.

The regulator found that Meta failed to adequately inform users about the implications of granting the platform access to their photo galleries, which were used to generate content suggestions within the app. The investigation revealed that Meta relied on a broad app-wide permission, rather than clearly explaining the additional use of this access for photo suggestions.

As a result, users might have unknowingly granted broad access to their entire photo collections. The regulator has given Meta 60 days to disable the feature by default and introduce a clear consent request, explaining why the access is required and how users can switch it off. The fine is considered to be among the largest imposed on a technology company by an Italian authority, reflecting the severity of the alleged violations.