Italy’s data protection authority has fined Meta €805 million — about $887 million — after finding that the Facebook app on Android phones accessed users’ photographs and videos without their consent. The Garante per la protezione dei dati personali announced the decision on Saturday, November 14, 2026. It is the largest fine the regulator has ever imposed, and one of the biggest privacy penalties ever handed to a technology company in Europe.
The case turns on a single feature, called “Get suggestions from your gallery when you browse Facebook.” According to the Garante, the feature has been switched on by default since 2023. Through it, the Facebook app could read photos, videos and their metadata stored on people’s phones, and suggest them as posts. The authority says about 20 million Android users in Italy were affected, and that the access happened “without obtaining specific consent and without informing them” properly.
In practice, the feature worked like this: while a person browsed Facebook, the app could reach into the phone’s gallery and suggest photos and videos as things to post — without the person ever opening the gallery, choosing a photo, or realising the app was looking. The suggestion itself looked helpful, even friendly. The access behind it was the problem: the photos on a phone are private by default, and the regulator’s view is that no app should be able to browse them on the strength of a vague, general permission.
The Permission Was The Problem
The Garante’s central finding is about how permission was collected, not about the idea of suggestions. The app asked for a single, app-wide permission, with a generic notice that did not explain that Facebook would look through the phone’s gallery. Users were never asked, separately and specifically, whether Facebook could reach into their photo libraries. The authority found a breach of Article 122 of Italy’s Privacy Code, the provision that implements the European Union’s ePrivacy rules on accessing information stored on a person’s device.
That legal route matters. The Garante acted under Italian ePrivacy law rather than the GDPR, which is why the fine came from Rome rather than from Ireland, where Meta’s European headquarters sits. The fine amounts to about 0.47 percent of Meta’s global revenue. Meta rejected the regulator’s conclusions, called the penalty disproportionate, and said it would file a legal appeal.
What Meta Has To Do Now
Within 60 days, Meta must switch the feature off by default for users in Italy and ask for consent through a separate, specific request that explains what the feature does, that it needs gallery access, and how to turn it off. The requirement applies even to people who already granted permission. If Meta does not comply, the feature cannot run for anyone without valid consent. The deadline falls in mid-January 2027.
The investigation began in July 2025, after a complaint from the Centro Tutela Consumatori Utenti, the consumer protection centre in Bolzano. The case did not examine whether gallery content was used to train artificial intelligence models — a practice Meta denies — and the Garante said it reserved the right to assess separately a newer feature, launched in 2026, that allows gallery content to be processed in the cloud.
For the roughly 20 million Italians whose galleries were in reach, the ruling changes one thing immediately: a feature that quietly looked at their photos now has to ask, clearly, before it looks again. For Meta, it is a reminder that in Europe, the question is not only what an app does with your data — it is whether it ever properly asked.
About 20 million Android users in Italy were affected by a feature that had been switched on by default since 2023.
THE STORY SO FAR
2023 — Facebook’s “Get suggestions from your gallery” feature is switched on by default for Android users in Italy.
July 2025 — The Centro Tutela Consumatori Utenti in Bolzano files a complaint, and the Garante opens an investigation.
November 14, 2026 — The Garante fines Meta Platforms Ireland Limited €805 million, about $887 million, and orders the feature switched off by default within 60 days.
November 14, 2026 — Meta rejects the findings, calls the fine disproportionate, and says it will appeal.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
Mid-January 2027 — Meta’s 60-day deadline to switch the gallery-suggestion feature off by default in Italy and introduce a separate consent request.
The appeal — Meta has said it will challenge the fine in court, a process that could take months or years.
The cloud question — the Garante reserved the right to assess separately a 2026 feature that processes gallery content in the cloud.
THE KEY NUMBERS
€805 million — the fine, about $887 million at current rates.
About 20 million — the Android users in Italy whose galleries the feature could reach.
60 days — the time Meta has to switch the feature off by default and seek separate consent.
2023 — the year the feature was switched on by default.
0.47% — the fine as a share of Meta’s global revenue, according to the Garante.
July 2025 — when the investigation began, after a complaint from a consumer centre in Bolzano.
