Italy Fines Meta €805 Million Over Facebook Android Photo Access

MILAN - Italy's data protection authority fined Meta Platforms €805 million ($887 million) on Nov. 14 after concluding that Facebook's Android app accessed user photos and videos without specific, informed consent. What happened? The regulator, known as Garante, opened the investigation in July 2025 following a complaint from the Consumer Protection Centre in Bolzano. Investigators found that a gallery-suggestion feature enabled by default since 2023 scanned and accessed local smartphone photos, videos, and associated metadata across roughly 20 million Italian Android users under overly generic permission prompts that lacked clear, granular opt-in consent. "The figure of 805 million euros is by far the largest fine ever imposed by the Italian regulator," Al Jazeera reported, noting the penalty represents roughly 0.47% of Meta's global revenue. Why does it matter? Italian regulators cited Meta's lack of cooperation during the inquiry and referenced a prior 2019 privacy penalty when calculating the record sanction under European Union ePrivacy rules. The ruling underscores intensifying European regulatory scrutiny over default mobile app permissions that harvest personal media files and metadata without granular user opt-ins, following stricter enforcement of European Union privacy rules. Garante clarified that the proceedings did not address whether user photos were used to train artificial intelligence models, a practice Meta denies. What comes next? Garante ordered Meta to redesign the consent notification, provide transparent disclosure, and disable the default gallery-suggestion setting within 60 days. Meta has not publicly commented on the decision and retains the legal right to appeal the €805 million penalty in Italian courts.