Italy fines Meta $887 million over Android data access

Regulatory penalty details confirmed

Italy's data protection authority penalized Meta Platforms with a fine of €805 million, which converts to $887 million. This penalty arises because the Android version of Facebook includes a specific option called Get suggestions from your gallery while browsing Facebook. Users whose photos and videos resided locally on their phones faced this feature without receiving specific informed consent. Investigators found that the application accessed an entire local image archive automatically by default instead of seeking separate authorization.

Compliance deadlines and scope

Within a mandated 60-day period, the regulatory body ordered Meta to fully turn off the gallery suggestion option as the default setting. Users must provide separate explicit consent before any such access can be re-enabled after this period. The investigation began in 2025 and did not encompass potential use of scraped content for training artificial intelligence models. Regulators reserved the right to separately evaluate newer cloud processing features launched in 2026 that allow gallery content processing.

Revenue impact and jurisdiction

The monumental fine accounts for roughly 0.47 percent of Meta's global annual revenue according to the authority statement. During proceedings Meta argued the matter should fall under Ireland's Data Protection Commission under GDPR one-stop-shop rules. The Italian watchdog rejected this argument and anchored its ruling instead in the ePrivacy directive regarding smartphone storage privacy. Meta was not immediately available for comment when the agency issued its official statement on Saturday.