
ITALY FINES META $887 MILLION OVER FACEBOOK ACCESS TO USERS’ PRIVATE PHOTO GALLERIES
Italy’s Data Protection Authority has fined Meta Platforms €805 million, about $887 million, after concluding that Facebook’s Android app accessed photographs, videos and related metadata stored on Italian users’ smartphones without sufficiently specific consent or adequate information. The case involves the “Get suggestions from gallery when browsing Facebook” feature, available since 2023, which surfaces media from users’ private galleries as potential Facebook posts. Italy says roughly 20 million Android users were affected. Meta has 60 days to make the feature disabled by default and obtain separate, informed consent before activating it. garanteprivacy.it