Italy fines Meta US$887 for using Android gallery photos and videos on Facebook

Summary

• Italy imposed an €805 million fine on Meta for accessing Android users' Facebook galleries without specific consent or adequate disclosure.
• The Italian Data Protection Authority ruled the "Get suggestions from gallery when browsing Facebook" feature violated European privacy directives & Italian law.
• Investigators found the feature was enabled by default & accessed galleries through a single permission covering multiple app functions.
• Meta has 60 days to disable the feature & obtain separate consent from Italy's 20 million Android users.
• The penalty reflects Meta's lack of cooperation & amounts to 0.47 percent of the group's global turnover.
• The fine was issued against Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, which challenged Italy's jurisdiction.