Meta fined nearly a billion dollars: "Scanned photos without consent"

Italy fined Meta €805 million for scanning the phone galleries of approximately 20 million Android users without explicit consent. The authority ordered the feature to be disabled by default. Meta announced it would appeal.

Italy's data protection authority imposed a fine of €805 million on Meta, the parent company of Facebook, for illegally accessing the photos of approximately 20 million Android users in the country without explicit consent. The authority determined that Meta did not properly inform users of its ability to scan the phone gallery, and that the general permission granted to the app was accompanied by a generic notice that prevented understanding. The authority ordered Meta to disable the feature by default within 60 days, obtain separate consent, and clarify how to disable it. Meta announced it would appeal the decision, rejecting the regulator's findings and the amount of the fine. The fine is approximately 0.4% of Meta's annual turnover in 2025, the second largest in Italy after the Amazon fine in 2021.