Italy has fined Meta €805 million for accessing photos and videos of users on Android operating systems without permission, while Meta has confirmed it will appeal.
Italy’s data protection authority announced on Saturday, 14 Nov 2026 GMT+7, that it fined Meta Platforms €805 million (about 30 billion baht) after finding the company accessed photos and videos of Android users without their consent or notification.
The agency stated that Meta accessed Android users’ photos and videos through a feature in the Facebook application that recommends content from users’ private photo libraries.
The fine represents approximately 0.47% of Meta’s global revenue. Meta has 60 days to set the feature’s default to off and must obtain separate user consent to enable it.
A Meta spokesperson said the company will appeal the order, strongly disagreeing with the regulator’s decision and describing the fine as “unreasonable and excessive.”
“This is a basic feature that helps people share photos and videos on Facebook more easily. Users must grant permission on their devices before the feature works and can change this permission anytime in the settings menu,” the Meta spokesperson said in a statement.
Italy’s data protection authority clarified that the investigation, which began in 2025, did not cover the possibility that this content was used to train artificial intelligence (AI) models—a practice Meta had previously denied.
Additionally, the agency said it will separately evaluate Facebook’s new feature launched this year that allows content processing from users’ photo libraries on the cloud.
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Source:cna