Italy fined Meta 805 million euros ($887 million) after it found Facebook accessed Android users' private photo and video galleries without specific informed consent, potentially affecting 20 million people.
￭ On November 14, Italy's data protection authority announced that the "Get suggestions from gallery while browsing Facebook" feature, introduced in 2023, allowed the app to access photos, videos and related metadata stored on users' phones.
￭ According to the regulator, the feature is enabled by default, while a single, broadly worded permission could give Facebook access to a device's entire photo library, possibly on a regular basis, without users knowing exactly what information is being accessed.