Italy's data watchdog fines Meta €805m over photo access

Italy's Data Protection Authority has fined Meta €805m (£670m; $887m) for accessing Android users' photos without their specific consent.

The regulator said Meta did not properly inform about 20 million smartphone users that it had access to their photos and videos through a feature of the Facebook app. That feature suggests photos and videos from a phone's gallery as ideas for posts.

Facebook obtained access to users' galleries through a single app-wide authorisation. The authority said a preceding notice did not make clear that this would also let Facebook generate suggestions based on photos in the gallery.

Meta has 60 days to disable the feature by default and to seek users' consent separately. The authority said it weighed "the high number of people affected" and the fact the practice is "still ongoing for those who have not updated the app". It also cited "Meta's lack of co-operation".

The fine is among the largest an Italian authority has ever imposed on a tech giant. Last month a US judge in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $25bn (£18.6bn) after finding it had spent years lying to the public about how it handled Facebook user data.