MILAN, Nov 14 - Italy's data protection authority announced on Saturday that it has levied a fine of 805 million on Meta Platforms after concluding the company accessed Android users' photographs and videos without securing their consent or informing them.
The regulator's statement said the access occurred through a feature in Meta's Facebook app that suggested content from users' personal galleries for them to post. According to the authority, that functionality reached into users' photo and video libraries without clear prior consent or notification.
As part of its ruling, the authority has given Meta 60 days to make the feature disabled by default and to implement a separate process by which users must explicitly grant permission for their gallery content to be accessed for suggestions. The decision is procedural and corrective; Meta was not immediately available for comment following the announcement.
The investigation that produced the fine began in 2025, the authority said. That inquiry did not address whether the content accessed through the feature was ever used to train artificial intelligence models. Meta has denied that it used the content in that way.
Separately, the regulator said it reserved the right to carry out a distinct assessment of a newer capability launched in 2026 that permits content from users' galleries to be processed in the cloud. The authority did not provide details on the timing or scope of any follow-up review of that cloud-processing feature.
The monetary penalty is equivalent to about 0.47% of the group's global revenue, the authority noted. The statement included the conversion metric used in its calculation: $1 = 0.9074 euros.
Contextual summary
The authority's action targets how an existing Facebook app feature interacted with Android users' personal galleries. The order requires default deactivation of the feature and mandates a separate consent mechanism within a 60-day window. The regulator separated its inquiry from questions regarding possible use of the content for AI training, which it did not investigate, and it left open a further review of a 2026 cloud-based processing feature.
Key points
- Italy fined Meta 805 million ($887 million) for accessing Android users' photos and videos without consent.
- The Facebook app feature in question suggested images and videos from users' personal galleries for posting; Meta has 60 days to change the default and obtain separate consent.
- The probe began in 2025 and did not cover whether the accessed content was used to train AI models; Meta denies that such training occurred. The regulator may separately review a 2026 cloud-processing feature.
Risks and uncertainties
- Regulatory follow-up: The authority has reserved the right to evaluate a 2026 feature that processes gallery content in the cloud, creating the possibility of additional regulatory action if issues are found. This could affect cloud services and platform operations.
- Unresolved usage questions: Because the investigation did not examine whether the accessed content was used for AI model training, uncertainty remains about the scope of potential data uses, despite Meta's denial.
- Operational and compliance risk: Meta must alter app defaults and implement a separate consent mechanism within 60 days, presenting implementation and user-experience challenges that could have operational impact.
These developments touch primarily on technology platforms, data privacy governance, and cloud-processing services. The authority's decision and any subsequent reviews could influence regulatory scrutiny of similar features across digital platforms.