Italy fines Meta €805m over access to phone photos

Italy's Data Protection Authority has fined Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, €805m (£670m) over the way the Facebook app reached into the photo galleries of Android phones, saying about 20 million users were not clearly told what they were agreeing to.

The regulator said Facebook requested access to users' photos and videos through a single permission request covering the whole app, and that the notice shown beforehand did not make clear the company would also suggest pictures from the gallery as ideas for posts. Meta has 60 days to disable the feature by default and to ask users for their consent separately.

The authority said it weighed the high number of people affected and the fact that the practice continues for users who have not updated the app and for those who have already consented to the system. It also cited Meta's lack of cooperation.

A Meta spokesperson told the BBC the company planned to appeal. "We strongly disagree with the [regulator's] assessment of the facts, its application of the law, and the disproportionate level of the fine," the spokesperson said.

Meta described the feature as a straightforward one that helps people post photos and videos. People must give permission on their device before it can operate, the company said, and can change that permission at any time through their settings.

The BBC reported the penalty as €805m, or $887m at its conversion. Reuters headlined the same decision at $887 million and Al Jazeera at $880m, while Turkey's Anadolu Agency put it at $900m.

The BBC said the sum was among the largest an Italian authority has ever imposed on a technology company. It noted the decision came a month after a US judge in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $25bn, which the BBC described as the largest fine the company has faced over its business practices, after the judge found it had spent years lying to the public about how it handled Facebook user data.