Italy Fines Meta $887 Million Over Facebook Photo Access

Italy's data protection authority has fined Meta 805 million euros, or roughly $887 million, after finding that the Facebook app on Android devices accessed users' photos, videos and associated metadata without their specific consent, Al Jazeera reported, citing the regulator, known as Garante.

What feature triggered the fine?

The penalty centers on a Facebook function called "Get suggestions from gallery when browsing Facebook," which pulls photos and videos from a phone's camera roll to suggest for posting while a user scrolls the app, according to Garante. The authority said the feature was turned on by default and that Meta's consent process was "too generic," leaving users unable to understand which specific permissions they were granting when they accepted Facebook's terms. Garante said that setup violates the Italian law implementing the European Union's ePrivacy directive.

How large is the fine compared to past cases?

At 805 million euros, the penalty is the largest Garante has ever issued, according to the regulator. Garante said the figure amounts to roughly 0.47 percent of Meta's global turnover. The authority said two factors pushed the fine to that size: the scale of people potentially affected and what it called a "lack of cooperation" from Meta during the proceedings. Garante also cited a prior violation that led to a 2019 fine against the company as a contributing factor in setting the new penalty.

How many users were affected?

Garante estimated that as many as 20 million Android users in Italy could have been affected by the gallery-suggestion feature, the regulator said. The authority did not address whether the harvested images were used to train artificial intelligence systems, noting that question fell outside the scope of this proceeding. Meta denies using the photos for AI training, according to the report.

What does Meta have to do now?

Garante ordered Meta to rewrite its consent notification so it clearly discloses the permission being requested, and to stop enabling the gallery-suggestion feature by default. Meta has not issued a public comment on the decision, and the company retains the right to appeal the ruling, according to Al Jazeera.

By the numbers

• 805 million euros ($887 million): Size of the fine, the largest in Garante's history.
• 20 million: Estimated number of Italian Android users potentially affected by the gallery feature.
• 0.47 percent: Share of Meta's global turnover the fine represents, per Garante.
• 2019: Year of an earlier Garante fine against Meta cited as a contributing factor.

What to watch

• Whether Meta files an appeal and on what legal grounds.
• Whether Meta discloses a global or EU-wide timeline for disabling the gallery-suggestion default outside Italy.
• Whether other EU data protection authorities open parallel inquiries into the same Facebook feature.
• Whether Garante or another regulator revisits the unresolved question of AI training on user photos.