Italy fines Meta €805m over Facebook photo access

Italy’s data protection authority has fined Meta €805m over a Facebook feature that accessed Android users’ phone photos and videos without clearly informing them, and ordered the company to seek separate consent for the feature.

The regulator said about 20 million smartphone users were affected. It has given Meta 60 days to disable the feature by default and obtain users’ consent separately.

The feature suggests images from a person’s phone gallery as ideas for Facebook posts. Meta sought access through a single, app-wide permission. The authority said the notice shown before permission was granted did not make clear that Facebook could use the images to generate suggestions.

The regulator said the issue remained ongoing for users who had not updated the app and for some who had already consented. It also cited what it described as Meta’s lack of co-operation when setting the fine.

Meta had not responded to the BBC’s request for comment at the time of its report. The BBC described the penalty as among the largest ever imposed on a technology company by an Italian authority.