Italy Hits Meta Over Photo Access

Italy’s data protection authority has fined Meta €805 million over Facebook’s “gallery suggestions” feature, saying the company accessed photos, videos and related metadata from Android users in Italy without obtaining specific consent or giving clear enough notice, according to Times of Malta’s account of the regulator’s statement.

The legal hinge is not complicated, though large platforms prefer to make it sound like a weather system. Consent for one thing is not consent for everything. The Italian authority said Facebook asked for gallery access through a single app-wide authorisation, paired with a generic notice about enabling features. In ordinary language: users were asked to open the door, but not plainly told this particular room was included.

That matters because the feature, available since 2023, suggests images and videos from a user’s phone gallery as possible post ideas while the user is browsing Facebook. The regulator’s position is that this required a separate, specific request and a clear explanation that the feature involved access to the phone’s photo gallery, along with instructions on how to turn it off.

Authority, here, sits with Italy’s privacy watchdog, not a court. What it has issued is an administrative fine and corrective order, not a criminal finding and not a final judgment immune from challenge. Times of Malta reports that Meta may appeal. That distinction is worth keeping intact; a regulator can hit hard, and a company can still ask judges to cut the bill. Amazon managed exactly that in Italy after a competition fine was reduced on appeal.

Even so, €805 million is not decorative. The authority said it considered the scale — about 20 million Android users in Italy — the duration of the alleged infringement, which it said remains ongoing for some users, and what it described as Meta’s lack of cooperation during the investigation. The fine amounts to roughly 0.4% of Meta’s annual turnover, based on figures cited by the regulator.

The practical consequence is at least as important as the number. Meta has been ordered to redesign the consent flow so the request is separate and specific. That is the clause that changes incentives. If permission screens must say, plainly, “this gives us access to your gallery for content suggestions,” fewer people may agree. Silicon Valley has spent years learning that friction is expensive. Privacy law’s entire personality is adding it back.

Meta had not responded to Times of Malta by the time of publication.