Italy slams Meta with €805m fine for secretly accessing users’ photos

Italian regulators have fined Meta €805 million  about £670 million / $887 million  for accessing Android users’ photos and videos without getting their clear consent.

BBC reports that Italy’s Data Protection Authority said around 20 million smartphone users were affected by a Facebook feature that was not properly explained to them.

Meta has now been given 60 days to switch off the feature by default and ask users for separate permission before using it.

It is one of the biggest fines ever handed to a tech company by an Italian authority.

The issue is about a Facebook tool that suggests photos and videos from your phone gallery as ideas for posts.

Facebook asked users for access to their entire photo gallery through one general permission but the regulator said the notice shown to users did not clearly explain that Facebook would then use those photos to generate post suggestions.

The authority said it considered the large number of people affected, the fact that the practice is still ongoing for users who have not updated the app or who already gave consent, and what it described as Meta’s “lack of co-operation.”

The BBC has contacted Meta for comment.

The fine comes just a month after Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp  was ordered to pay $25 billion (£18.6bn) in the US.

A judge in New Mexico ruled that the company had spent years misleading the public about how it handled Facebook user data.