Italy’s privacy regulator hit Meta Platforms with an €805 million fine on Saturday. The agency penalized the Facebook parent company for extracting photos and videos from Android users‘ devices without proper consent.
How Facebook Scanned User Galleries
The regulatory penalty centers on a specific feature introduced to the Facebook Android application in 2023. It is known as “Get suggestions from gallery when browsing Facebook”.
The Garante per la protezione dei dati personali said the tool automatically scanned private photo archives, videos, and related metadata. This data was stored on the smartphones of roughly 20 million users across Italy.
The formal investigation was triggered in July 2025. A report arrived from the Centro Tutela Consumatori Utenti di Bolzano, a consumer protection centre located in South Tyrol.
The Garante said that with full authorization enabled, the application could view a device’s entire photo archive on a permanent basis. Neither users nor the regulator could verify what information was actually used.
Developers argued that local, on-device processing is lighter regarding privacy. The Garante maintained that the violation is triggered at the exact moment of access.
Investigators discovered that permission for the gallery access was requested through a single, app-wide authorization prompt. It was preceded by a generic notice to enable other app functions.
The prompt failed to clarify that users were also granting permission for gallery suggestions. The feature was preset as active by default.
access to the gallery is requested with a single permission, valid for the entire app and for multiple functions with different needs.
Italian Data Protection Agency, via Yahoo News
The Italian watchdog determined this bundled authorization violated Article 122 of the Italian Privacy Code. That article implements the European Union’s ePrivacy Directive.
ePrivacy rules lack a single-stop-shop mechanism. The Garante was able to act directly against Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, the company’s European headquarters in Dublin.
Why the Italian Agency Levied the Record Fine
The financial sanction amounts to about 0.47 percent of Meta’s global turnover. It is by far the largest fine the Italian agency has ever imposed on a technology company.
In April 2025, the European Commission penalized Meta €200 million under the Digital Markets Act.
Meta Must Meet Regulatory Deadlines and Report Remediation
The regulatory decision orders Meta to alter its operational mechanics in Italy within 60 days.
Meta is required to submit formal remediation reports. The company must report initiatives started within 30 days.
Meta must adopt measures by February 12, 2027. That date corresponds to the 90-day mark.
The regulator said the probe did not examine whether the accessed content was used to train artificial intelligence models. Meta has denied that practice.
A company spokesperson disagreed with the regulator’s assessment and the disproportionate level of the fine. The spokesperson confirmed that Meta plans to appeal the decision.
Meta stock closed at $641.69 on Friday, November 13, 2026. The stock rose $18.08 or 2.90 percent ahead of the announcement, and the company must submit its first compliance report within 30 days.
