Italy fines Meta €805 million over photo access
Italy’s data protection authority has fined Meta €805 million for accessing Android users’ photographs and videos without obtaining their consent or informing them, the authority said in a statement on Saturday.
The fine is the largest ever issued by Italy’s data protection regulator. It concerns the “camera roll suggestions when browsing Facebook” feature, which suggests photos and videos from a phone’s gallery for users to add to posts.
The investigation, launched in 2025, found that access to a user’s camera roll is requested with a single permission for the entire app, covering multiple features with different needs. The authorization request was preceded by a generic warning that did not allow users to understand they were authorizing picture and video suggestions, the authority said.
“If granted in full, this type of permission allows the app to read the device's entire photo archive, usually permanently, without the user or the authorities being able to verify which information is actually being used,” the statement reads.
The authority rejected Meta’s objection that jurisdiction belonged to the Irish authority, because the ePrivacy regulation does not provide for the “one-stop-shop” mechanism.
Meta has 60 days to obtain consent separately and specifically for the feature, clearly explain what it does and how it can be disabled, and disable it by default, including for users who have already authorized it. Meta has the right to appeal the decision. Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The investigation did not cover the possible use of the content to train AI models, a practice Meta denied, the authority said. The authority also reserved the right to assess separately a new feature, launched in 2026, that allows content from users’ galleries to be processed in the cloud. The fine is equivalent to about 0.47% of the group’s global revenue, the authority said.
