Italian data protection regulators fined Facebook parent company Meta 805 million euros ($880 million) on Saturday for accessing users’ photos without their specific consent.
The authority stated that Meta accessed photographs, videos, and related metadata from roughly 20 million Italian Android users without properly informing them.
The penalty targets Facebook’s gallery suggestions feature, introduced in 2023, which scans phone galleries to propose post ideas while users browse.
Regulators found that the app bundled gallery permissions into a single, generic authorisation instead of requesting separate consent.
Regulators factored Meta’s lack of cooperation during the investigation and the ongoing nature of the violation into the penalty, which represents roughly 0.4 per cent of the tech giant’s $201 billion annual revenue in 2025.
Moving forward, the tech giant must request explicit, standalone consent for the feature, clearly explain its purpose, and show users how to disable it.
The ruling marks one of Italy’s largest fines against a technology company and follows a record $25 billion data-privacy penalty imposed against Meta in New Mexico in late October.
Meta, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment, retains the right to appeal.
