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Italy Fines Meta €805 Million Over Facebook Access to Android Photo Galleries

Italy's Data Protection Authority says about 20 million Android users were not told that one permission let Facebook suggest posts from their galleries, and gives Meta 60 days to change the feature.

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Italy's Data Protection Authority has fined Meta €805 million, about $887 million, for accessing the photos and videos of Android users without their specific consent, the BBC reported. The fine is among the largest an Italian authority has ever imposed on a technology company. Details were first published by BBC News.

The regulator said Meta did not properly inform about 20 million smartphone users that a feature of the Facebook app gave the company access to their photos and videos. It has given Meta 60 days to disable the feature by default and to seek users' consent separately.

The feature suggests photos and videos from a user's phone gallery as ideas for posts. Facebook asked for access to the gallery through a single authorisation covering the whole app. According to the regulator, the notice shown beforehand did not make clear that granting it would also let Facebook generate suggestions from the photos stored there.

In setting the fine, the authority said it took into account "the high number of people affected" and the fact that the practice was "still ongoing for those who have not updated the app and for those who have already given their consent to the system". It also cited "Meta's lack of co-operation".

The BBC said it had asked Meta for comment.

The Italian penalty follows the largest fine Meta has faced for its business practices. Last month a US judge in New Mexico ordered the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, to pay $25 billion after finding it had spent years lying to the public about how it handled Facebook user data.

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