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.
- Tech
- Reuters
- Published Date: 07:14 PM 14 November 2026
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