Italy Fines Meta $887M Over Android Photo Access
Italy's data protection authority fined Meta €805m ($887m) for accessing Android users' photos and videos through the Facebook app without specific consent. Meta says it will appeal, calling the penalty disproportionate. The regulator gave the company 60 days to switch the feature off by default.
Italy's data protection authority has fined Facebook parent Meta €805m ($887m) for accessing Android users' photos and videos without their specific consent, the regulator said in a statement on Saturday, November 14, 2026. Italy fines Meta $887m in one of the largest penalties an Italian authority has imposed on a tech company.
Meta said it will appeal.
What the regulator found
The penalty covers a feature in the Facebook app for Android that suggests photos and videos from a user's phone gallery as ideas for posts. It has been available since 2023. Through the app, Meta accessed photographs, videos and related metadata belonging to Italian users "without obtaining specific consent and without properly informing them," the authority said.
About 20 million Android users in Italy were affected, according to the regulator.
Facebook asked for gallery access through a single permission covering the whole app. A generic notice came first, asking users to enable other features. That notice did not let people understand they were also authorizing gallery suggestions, the regulator said.
60 days to change course
Meta now has 60 days to disable the feature by default and ask for consent through a separate, specific request. The request must state that the feature involves access to a user's photo gallery and explain how to turn it off.
In setting the fine, the authority cited the high number of people affected and the length of the infringement. It said the violation is "still ongoing for those who have not updated the app and for those who have already given their consent to the system." It also pointed to "Meta's lack of cooperation during the investigation."
The fine equals roughly 0.4% of the group's annual turnover. Meta's revenue reached $201bn in 2025, with a net profit of $60.5bn.
Meta's response
A Meta spokesperson said: "We strongly disagree with the [regulator's] assessment of the facts, its application of the law, and the disproportionate level of the fine."
The company described the tool as "a straightforward feature which helps people post photos and videos to Facebook." Meta said people must grant permission on their device before it can operate, and they can change that permission at any time in their settings.
Second large penalty in weeks
The Italian ruling follows another costly decision against Meta. In late October, a US judge in New Mexico ordered the company to pay $25bn. The court found Meta had spent years misleading the state's residents about how it handled their data. Meta criticized that penalty as a "tax" on freedom of expression.
For scale, Italy's competition authority fined Amazon more than €1.1bn in 2021. That sum was later cut to €752m on appeal.
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