Technology and Scienceupdated 20m ago2 min read
Archive photo · 10 November 2015Italy’s Privacy Authority Fines Meta €805 Million Over Android Photo Access
12 Other4 Western Alternative4 Western Mainstream7 Other source typesPhoto: Carlo Dani, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Cropped for layout
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Italy fines Meta €805 million for Android photo access without explicit user consent. About 20 million Italian Android users affected; feature gallery suggestions enabled by default.
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Italy targets Meta’s gallery access
Italy’s data protection authority fined Meta 805 million euros for accessing users’ photos, videos and associated metadata stored on Italian users’ smartphones without specific consent and without informing them. Garante said the Facebook app on Android devices “accessed photos, videos and associated metadata stored on Italian users’ smartphones without specific consent and without informing them”, and it tied the violation to the “Get suggestions from gallery when browsing Facebook” feature. Garante said the suggestions option violated the Italian law implementing the EU’s ePrivacy directive because the app’s process for collecting consent was too generic and the feature was enabled by default.
Garante said the regulator’s decision took into account a prior 2019 fine and a “lack of cooperation” by Meta, and it said roughly 20 million Italian Android users could have been affected. The proceedings did not address the possible use of content to train artificial intelligence, which Meta denies, and Meta had not yet publicly commented and retained the right to appeal.
What regulators ordered Meta to do
Garante said Meta must fix the unclear consent notification and disable the suggestions option being set by default, and it said the regulator estimated roughly 20 million Italian Android users could have been affected by the default setting. The authority required Meta to introduce a separate consent request, clearly explain the feature’s purpose and keep it disabled by default within 60 days, including for users who previously granted permission. The authority required Meta to report initial measures within 30 days and provide details of implemented measures within 90 days.
The BBC said the Italian regulator gave Meta 60 days to disable the feature by default and seek users’ consent separately, and it described the fine as among the largest an Italian authority has ever imposed on a tech giant. The BBC said the charge related to a feature that suggests photos and videos from a user’s phone gallery as ideas for posts, while Facebook requested access through a single app-wide authorisation.
Jurisdiction dispute and AI training left out
The authority rejected Meta’s jurisdictional objection, saying ePrivacy legislation does not provide for the EU’s “one-stop-shop” mechanism. The BBC said the Italian regulator said Meta did not properly inform about 20 million smartphone users that it had access to their photos and videos via a feature of the Facebook app. Al Jazeera said the proceedings did not address the possible use of content to train artificial intelligence, which Meta denies, and it said Meta had not yet publicly commented on the matter.
“The proceedings did not address the possible use of content to train artificial intelligence, which Meta denies.”
The authority launched the investigation in July 2025 after a complaint by the Bolzano Consumer Protection Center and included a technical analysis of the app. The authority reserved the right to investigate separately a cloud-based gallery processing feature launched in 2026, while it kept the AI-training question out of the proceedings.