Italy fines Facebook’s guardian firm Meta $880m over photograph privateness

News

By Linda Ikeji
15 November 2026, 7:56 am

Italy’s information safety authority stated on Saturday it had fined Facebook proprietor Meta €805 million ($880 million) for accessing photographs, movies and associated metadata on Android units “without obtaining specific consent and without properly informing” customers.

Meta stated it will attraction. An organization spokesperson stated Meta “strongly disagree[s]” with the regulator’s evaluation and what it referred to as “the disproportionate level of the fine”.

The penalty issues Facebook’s gallery recommendations function, which has been accessible since 2023. The function suggests photographs and movies from a consumer’s telephone gallery that they could wish to share as posts whereas looking the app.

The regulator stated Facebook sought a single permission to entry the gallery throughout the app. That request adopted a generic discover about enabling different options, which the authority stated didn’t clarify that customers have been additionally granting entry for gallery recommendations.

The authority stated Meta should search separate consent for the function, clearly clarify that it accesses the telephone’s photograph gallery and inform customers learn how to swap it off.

In setting the nice, the regulator cited the variety of folks affected, estimated at round 20 million Android customers in Italy, and the size of time the observe had continued. It stated the infringement was ongoing for customers who had not up to date the app and for individuals who had already granted permission. It additionally cited “Meta’s lack of cooperation during the investigation”.

The nice quantities to roughly 0.4 per cent of Meta’s 2025 income of $201 billion. The firm reported a web revenue of $60.5 billion that yr.

The penalty is among the many largest imposed on a expertise firm by an Italian authority. In 2021, Amazon was fined greater than €1.1 billion for breaching competitors guidelines. That penalty was decreased to €752 million on attraction.

In a separate case in late October, authorities in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $25 billion over findings that it had misled residents about the way it used their information for greater than a decade. Meta referred to as that report penalty a “tax” on freedom of expression.