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Italy fines Meta $887 million over Android users' data access

In a massive privacy crackdown, Italy's data protection agency slapped Meta Platforms with an €805 million ($887 million) fine on Saturday after discovering the company secretly accessed Android users' personal photos and videos.

Reuters TECH
Published November 14,2026 07:14 PM
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Italy's data protection agency said on Saturday it had fined ⁠Meta Platforms €805 million ($887 million) ⁠after finding the company had accessed Android users' photographs and videos without obtaining their consent or ⁠informing them.

* Meta had access to Android users' photos and videos through a Facebook app feature that suggested content from users' personal galleries that they could post, the authority said in a statement

* Meta has 60 days ⁠to ⁠disable the feature by default and seek users' consent separately, it added

* Meta was not immediately available for comment

* The investigation, which began in 2025, did not cover the possible use ⁠of the content to train artificial intelligence models, a practice Meta denied, the authority said

* It added that it reserved the right to assess separately a new feature, launched ⁠in ‌2026, ‌that allows content from ⁠users' galleries to be ‌processed in the cloud

* The fine is equivalent to ⁠about 0.47% of ⁠the group's global revenue, the authority ⁠said