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The Italian Authority for the Protection of Personal Data imposed a fine of 805 million euros on “Meta”, the parent company of “Facebook”, for accessing users’ photos without obtaining their separate consent for this specific use, according to what it announced on Saturday.
The authority said in a statement that “Meta” accessed, through the “Facebook” application on devices running the “Android” system, Italian users’ photos, their videos, and associated data, “without obtaining specific consent and without informing them adequately.”
She added that the company did not properly inform about 20 million smartphone users that it had access to their photos and videos through a feature in the Facebook application.
The American company, which owns social media platforms such as Facebook, was given 60 days to disable this feature by default and obtain user consent separately.
A Meta spokesman told the BBC that the company "strongly disagrees with the authority regarding its assessment of the facts and its interpretation of the law, and believes that the value of the fine is disproportionate," adding that it intends to appeal the decision.
Meta is fined $567 million, in the largest child safety ruling ever issued against the social media giant.
In late October, a judge in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in a case in which the judiciary found the company responsible for misleading its users in the state about how their data was used, in a case related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The punishment is standard for the group that denounced it as a “tax” on freedom of expression.
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The new fine announced on Saturday is also one of the largest fines imposed by an Italian authority on a giant technology company.
In 2021, Amazon was fined more than 1.1 billion euros for violating the competition law, before the fine was reduced to 752 million euros following an appeal.
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The fine imposed on Facebook relates to the “Get Suggestions from the Photo Gallery” feature, available since 2023, which suggests to the user while browsing the application photos and video clips from his phone that he can publish.
According to the Italian authority, Facebook was requesting access to the photo gallery through a single permission covering the entire application, preceded by a general phrase “activate other features,” without clarifying to the user that it also allowed the user to use the contents of his photo gallery to submit suggestions for publishing.
According to Meta, “Users must grant permission on their device before it can work, and they can modify this permission at any time through settings.”
Meta must "request approval for this feature separately and specifically, clearly explain its purpose to users, and explain that it requires access to the photo gallery, and how to disable it."
The authority explained that, when determining the value of the fine, it took into account “the large number of people involved,” who are about 20 million Android users in Italy, and the duration of the violation that “is still ongoing for those who did not update the application and those who had previously given the system permission,” as well as “the lack of Meta cooperation during the investigation.”
The value of the fine represents about 0.4 percent of the group’s annual revenues, which amounted to $201 billion in 2025, while its net profits amounted to $60.5 billion.
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