Italy Fines Meta $887 Million Over Facebook Access to Android Users' Photos

Italy's data protection authority fined Meta Platforms €805 million ($887 million) on Saturday for accessing Android users' photos and videos through a Facebook feature without specific consent or proper notice. Meta said it will appeal, and the authority gave it 60 days to disable the feature by default and seek separate consent.

Investigators found that the feature, “Get suggestions from gallery when browsing Facebook,” was enabled by default and that Facebook requested gallery access through one permission covering several functions with different purposes. About 20 million Android users in Italy were affected, the authority said. The fine equals about 0.47% of the group's global revenue. It was imposed on Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, which challenged Italy's jurisdiction, and the authority said a lack of cooperation factored into the penalty. The probe began in 2025 and did not examine whether content was used to train AI models, a practice Meta denied. A Meta spokesperson called the fine disproportionate and said: “This is a simple feature that helps people share photos and videos on Facebook.”

Left-leaning outlets CBS News and the Los Angeles Times lead with the penalty itself. CBS, which rounds it to $880 million, places it among Italy's largest tech fines, recalling Amazon's 2021 penalty that was cut on appeal, and cites a $25 billion New Mexico order against Meta. It notes Meta had not commented. The LA Times gives more of the legal detail: the European privacy directive, default activation, the single permission, the jurisdiction challenge and the cooperation finding. Both agree on the Saturday date, the consent failure and the possibility of appeal. Alternative outlets The Hill and Investing.com, carrying Reuters, add Meta's defense, the AI-training exclusion and a separate review of a 2026 cloud-processing feature. Right-leaning outlets had not reported this story at the time of writing.