Italy’s national data privacy authority imposed a fine of 805 million euros, or approximately 880 million US dollars, on Meta on Saturday.
The regulator stated that the Facebook app on Android devices accessed photographs, videos, and associated metadata stored on the smartphones of Italian users. This access occurred without specific consent and without properly informing the individuals.
The investigation focused on a feature named Get suggestions from gallery when browsing Facebook. This tool suggests pictures and videos from a phone gallery for posting while a user browses the platform.
According to the authority, known as Garante, this functionality breaches Italian legislation implementing the European Union ePrivacy directive. The watchdog pointed out that the consent collection process used by the app is excessively generic. Users could not fully understand the exact permissions they granted by accepting the prompts.
The suggestions option was enabled automatically by default. Roughly 20 million Italian Android users may have been affected by the feature.
This financial penalty is by far the largest ever issued by the Italian regulatory body. It represents about 0.47 percent of the global turnover generated by Meta.
The regulator also cited a lack of cooperation from Meta during the proceedings. An earlier violation that led to a 2019 fine served as a contributing factor in the final decision.
Garante ordered Meta to correct the unclear consent notification and stop the feature from being enabled by default.
Investigators clarified that the proceedings did not examine the potential use of user content for training artificial intelligence models. Meta denies using content for that purpose.
Meta has retained the right to appeal the decision of the regulator. The company has not yet issued a public comment regarding the penalty.
