Italy issues whopping fine to Meta over data access

Detailed summary

Meta is facing a whopping fine after Italy's data protection agency says it accessed Android users' photos and videos without consent.

They are demanding Meta pays €805 million ($A1.3 billion) in compensation.

Meta had access to Android users' photos and videos through a Facebook app feature that suggested content from users' personal galleries that they could post, the authority said in a statement

The investigation, which began in 2025, did not cover the possible use of the content to train artificial intelligence models, a practice Meta denied, the authority said

It added that it reserved the right to assess separately a new feature, launched in 2026, that allows content from users' galleries to be processed in the cloud

The fine is equivalent to about 0.47 per cent of the group's global revenue, the authority said

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