Italy fines Meta €805 million over Facebook gallery suggestions

Italy's Data Protection Authority fined Meta €805 million ($887 million) on Saturday, saying a Facebook feature used Android users' gallery photos and videos without specific consent or adequate disclosure.

The regulator gave Meta 60 days to switch off the feature by default and request separate consent from users. The penalty represents approximately 0.47% of the Meta group's worldwide turnover, the authority said. The BBC said few penalties imposed on a tech giant by an Italian authority have been larger.

The tool offers photos and videos from a user's phone gallery as possible material for posts. It is called "Get suggestions from gallery when browsing Facebook," and investigators found it was active by default, the authority said.

The authority said it considered "the high number of people affected" when deciding the penalty. It said the issue was "still ongoing for those who have not updated the app and for those who have already given their consent to the system."

The outlets gave different figures. The BBC said the authority found Meta had not properly informed about 20 million smartphone users that it could access their photos and videos, while The Associated Press said the agency put Italy's Android user total at about 20 million.

The regulator also cited Meta's "lack of cooperation" with its investigation as a factor in the penalty.

Facebook sought permission to access galleries through a single app-wide request that covered multiple functions serving different purposes. The notice before that request did not clearly explain that Facebook could use gallery photos to produce suggestions, the authority said.

The authority said the feature breached the Italian law that implements the European Union's ePrivacy directive. The directive treats smartphones as part of a person's private sphere and requires "free and informed consent" for access, the authority said.

Italy began the investigation in 2025, but it did not examine whether gallery content was used to train artificial intelligence models. Meta denied using the content for that purpose, according to the authority.

Meta owns Facebook and is also behind Instagram and WhatsApp. The penalty was imposed on Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, which disputed Italy's jurisdiction in the case, the authority said.

It was not immediately known how the authority resolved that challenge.

Separately, the authority said it reserved the right to examine a feature launched in 2026 that permits gallery content to be processed in the cloud.