Italy fines Meta $880m over photo privacy

The Facebook app on Android devices “accessed photos, videos and associated metadata stored on Italian users’ smartphones without specific consent and without informing them”, Garante, the Italian data privacy authority, said Saturday. The issue relates specifically to the “Get suggestions from gallery when browsing Facebook” feature, which suggests photos and videos from the phone’s gallery for posting while browsing.

Garante said the app’s process for collecting consent is too generic and does not allow users to fully understand the specific permissions they are allowing by accepting. The suggestions option was also enabled by default.

Garante said Meta must fix the unclear consent notification and disable it being set by default, suggesting that roughly 20 million Italian Android users could have been affected by it. The regulator also highlighted a “lack of cooperation” by Meta and said an earlier violation, which resulted in a 2019 fine, was a contributing factor in their decision.