Italy fines Meta $880 million over accessing users' photos

Italian regulators fined Facebook parent company Meta $880 million for accessing users' photos without their "specific" consent, the country's data protection authority said on Saturday.

Through the Facebook application for Android devices, Meta accessed photographs, videos and related metadata belonging to Italian users "without obtaining specific consent and without properly informing them," the authority said in a statement.

Saturday's latest fine is among the largest an Italian authority has ever imposed on a tech giant. In 2021, Amazon received a more than 1.1 billion euro, or about $1.2 billion, fine for breaching competition law.

That sum was subsequently reduced to 752 million euros, or about $829 million, on appeal.

Meta may also appeal the latest fine. The tech company had not responded to a request for comment by Saturday afternoon. 

Meta has been fined or ordered to pay settlements over privacy issues. In September, a judge in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $25 billion to the state after a jury found that the social media company deceived consumers for years about its data privacy policies. The company said they disagreed with the jury's verdict.