Meta fined €805 million for Facebook feature in Italy

The Italian Data Protection Authority has fined Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (a legal entity of Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia) €805 million. The reason was a function in the social network Facebook, which without the knowledge of the user gets access to photos on the device, said the press service of the Ministry.

It’s about “Get tips from the gallery when browsing Facebook.” During viewing, the user is offered photos and videos from the phone gallery as ideas for publication.

As the data protection office found out, the application requests access to the gallery mixed with other permissions valid for the entire application and for several functions, because of which the user does not know what he consents to. In addition, this type of resolution allows the application to read the entire photo archive of the device without the ability to verify what information is being used.

In addition to the penalty, Meta is required to leave the feature disabled by default, request consent through a separate and specific request to use the feature and clearly explain to users what it is for and how to disable it.