Italy Levies Record €805 Million Fine Against Meta for Unauthorized Photo Access

Italy’s data protection authority cited Meta’s limited cooperation and the scale of affected users as key factors in the penalty.

Published On 14 Nov 202614 Nov 2026

Italian regulators have fined Meta 805 million euros ($887 million) for accessing users’ photos without their consent.

According to Garante, Italy’s data privacy authority, the Facebook app on Android devices accessed photos, videos, and associated metadata stored on Italian users’ smartphones without specific consent or prior notice.

The issue centers on the “Get suggestions from gallery when browsing Facebook” feature, which surfaces photos and videos from a device’s gallery for potential posting while users browse the app.

The authority determined that this functionality breaches Italian law implementing the EU’s ePrivacy directive.

Garante also found that Meta’s consent-gathering process is overly generic, preventing users from fully understanding the specific permissions they grant. The feature was additionally activated by default.

The 805 million euro penalty marks the largest fine ever issued by the Italian regulator.

Garante ordered Meta to revise its unclear consent notifications and disable the default setting, noting that approximately 20 million Android users in Italy may have been affected.

The regulator cited Meta’s lack of cooperation and a previous 2019 violation as contributing factors in its decision.

The fine equals roughly 0.47 percent of Meta’s global turnover.

The proceedings did not address the potential use of user content to train artificial intelligence, a practice Meta denies.

Meta has not yet issued a public statement but retains the right to appeal the regulator’s decision.

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