(Nov 14): The Italian Data Protection Authority fined Meta Platforms Inc €805 million (RM3.63 billion) for accessing photos and videos of Android users’ galleries without their explicit consent.

The company accessed photographs, videos and related metadata stored on Italian users’ smartphones through the Facebook app without obtaining consent and without adequately informing them, the Italian regulator said in a statement on Saturday. About 20 million Android users are estimated to have been affected.

The authority said it reserves the right to conduct a separate investigation into a new feature launched in 2026 that allows content from users’ galleries to be processed in the cloud.

Meta didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The penalty was imposed on Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd, the company’s main European subsidiary. The size of the fine also takes into consideration a previous 2019 enforcement action against the company, the regulator said.

Meta has 60 days to introduce a separate, specific consent request for the feature. The company must also keep the feature disabled by default.

The fine is equivalent to about 0.47% of the group’s worldwide revenue, the Italian authority said.

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