Italy fines Meta US$880mil over access to users' photos without consent

Italian regulators have imposed a hefty fine of 805 million euros (~US$880 million) on Facebook's parent company, Meta, for accessing users' photos without their explicit consent. The Italian data protection authority stated that Meta violated user privacy by accessing photos, videos, and related metadata through its Facebook application for Android devices without obtaining specific consent or providing proper information to users.

Meta has expressed its disagreement with the decision, stating that the fine is disproportionate. The company's spokesperson said, "We strongly disagree with the assessment by the regulators and the disproportionate level of the fine." This is not the first time Meta has faced such a large fine; in late October, the state of New Mexico ordered the company to pay a record-breaking $25 billion for misleading its residents about data usage, which the company called a "tax on freedom of expression."

The latest fine is among the largest ever imposed by an Italian authority on a tech giant. In 2021, Amazon faced a fine of over 1.1 billion euros for breaching competition law, which was later reduced to 752 million euros upon appeal.

The fine is related to Facebook's "gallery suggestions" feature, introduced in 2023. The feature suggests photos and videos from a user's phone gallery as ideas for posts while they browse. However, Italian regulators found that Meta requested access to the gallery through a single authorization, accompanied by a generic notice that did not clearly explain the additional feature. Consequently, users were unaware they were also authorizing suggestions from their gallery.

Regulators determined that Meta must now seek consent separately and clearly indicate what the feature does and how to disable it. They also took into account the significant number of people affected – around 20 million Android users in Italy – and the ongoing duration of the infringement for those who haven't updated the app or given consent. The fine amounts to approximately 0.4% of Meta's 2025 annual turnover of $201 billion, which includes a net profit of $60.5 billion.