Italy fines Meta $887 million over Facebook's access to users' photos

Meta was unavailable for comment. The regulator said the fine was equivalent to about 0.47 per cent of the company's global revenue.Meta has denied using the material for that purpose, the regulator said. (Photo: Unsplash)New Delhi,Nov 14, 2026 23:10 ISTItaly’s data protection authority has fined Meta about US$887 million after finding that the Facebook app accessed photos, videos and related data on Android phones without users’ specific consent. The regulator said on Saturday that the feature affected about 20 million Android users in Italy.The fine of US$887 million is equivalent to about Rs 8,300 crore.The feature, available since 2023, suggests photos and videos from a user’s phone gallery that they might want to post on Facebook. The regulator said Facebook sought a single permission to access the gallery across the app.The notice was too general for users to understand that granting access would also enable Facebook to suggest posts from their personal photos and videos. Meta has 60 days to turn the feature off by default and ask users separately whether they want to enable it. The company must clearly explain that the feature accesses their phone gallery and tell them how to switch it off.The regulator said it took into account how many people were affected, how long the practice had continued and what it described as Meta’s lack of cooperation during the investigation. It said the issue persisted for users who had yet to update the app or had already granted permission under the earlier system. Meta had yet to respond to a request for comment as of Saturday afternoon.The investigation began in 2025 and did not examine whether Meta used the photos or videos to train AI models. Meta denied using the material for that purpose, the regulator said. The authority said it could separately review a feature launched in 2026 that allows photos and videos from users’ galleries to be processed on remote servers.- Ends