ROME — Italian regulators fined Meta $880 million on Saturday, saying the Facebook parent accessed users’ photos without their specific consent, CBS News reported.
Italy’s data protection authority said Facebook’s Android app accessed photographs, videos and related metadata belonging to Italian users “without obtaining specific consent and without properly informing them.”
The fine is among the largest an Italian authority has imposed on a tech company. In 2021, Amazon was fined more than 1.1 billion euros, about $1.2 billion, for breaking competition law. That penalty was later cut to 752 million euros, about $829 million, on appeal.
Meta can appeal. The company had not responded to a request for comment by Saturday afternoon, according to CBS News.
Meta has faced several privacy rulings. In September, a judge in New Mexico ordered the company to pay $25 billion to that state after a jury found it had misled consumers for years about its data privacy practices. Meta said it disagreed with the verdict.
Meta’s Android app is widely used across the United States, including by many Arizonans. To limit what an app can reach, Android users can review photo and media permissions under Settings > Apps.
Sources: CBS News. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: LPS.1 / CC0 via Wikimedia Commons.
