Among Italy’s largest tech penalties, Meta fined 880 million for accessing users’ photos and videos

Italy’s privacy ruling

The country’s data protection authority announced the $880 million penalty on Saturday. It said Meta obtained photographs, videos and associated metadata from Italian users through the Facebook app on Android devices.

According to the authority, users were not given sufficient information and had not provided specific consent. The ruling concerns Meta, the parent company of Facebook.

A major technology penalty

The authority’s decision is among the biggest fines an Italian regulator has levied against a technology company. A previous large penalty involved Amazon, which was fined in 2021 for violating competition law.

Amazon’s original fine exceeded 1.1 billion euros, equivalent at the time to about $1.2 billion. An appeal later brought that amount down to 752 million euros, or approximately $829 million.

Meta may challenge decision

Meta has the option to appeal the Italian fine. The company had not replied to a request for comment by Saturday afternoon. The company has also faced other privacy-related legal action. In September, a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay the state $25 billion after a jury found it had misled consumers for years about its data privacy policies.

Earlier privacy case

Meta said it disagreed with the jury’s verdict in the New Mexico case. The Italian penalty is a separate action by the country’s data protection authority. The Italian authority’s statement focused on data collected through Facebook for Android and the lack of specific consent and proper information.