Photo by Samer Daboul on Pexels

Italy’s data protection authority has fined Meta €805 million, or about $887 million, for scanning Android users’ photos and videos without getting their specific consent. The ruling hits Meta’s core practice of bundling broad device access into a single setup step. According to the regulator, roughly 20 million smartphone owners in the country were caught up in the practice.

The issue sits inside the main Facebook application. The software asked people for a single, app-wide authorisation to open their media storage. Once inside, it did not just upload the files people deliberately picked. It crawled local photo galleries to generate automated suggestions for future social media posts, mining stored snapshots without telling owners that the broad toggle covered background scanning too.

Italian officials pointed to several factors to justify the size of the €805 million penalty. The regulator cited the sheer volume of 20 million affected accounts, the fact that the scanning feature stayed active over time, and what it called a lack of co-operation from Meta during the inquiry. The company now has 60 days to turn off the feature by default and set up a separate consent system for anyone who actually wants it.

Meta, which runs Instagram and WhatsApp alongside Facebook, plans to appeal the decision. Regulators have had a busy season with the company’s privacy ledger. The Italian penalty lands just after a United States court loss last month, where a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion for misleading the public about data handling over a span of years.

Watch for whether Meta complies with the 60-day deadline to disable the gallery suggestions by default while its planned appeal moves through the Italian courts.

Source: The Daily Star

This article was researched and drafted with AI assistance.

Photo by Samer Daboul on Pexels

Italy’s data protection authority has fined Meta €805 million, or about $887 million, for scanning Android users’ photos and videos without getting their specific consent. The ruling hits Meta’s core practice of bundling broad device access into a single setup step. According to the regulator, roughly 20 million smartphone owners in the country were caught up in the practice.

The issue sits inside the main Facebook application. The software asked people for a single, app-wide authorisation to open their media storage. Once inside, it did not just upload the files people deliberately picked. It crawled local photo galleries to generate automated suggestions for future social media posts, mining stored snapshots without telling owners that the broad toggle covered background scanning too.

Italian officials pointed to several factors to justify the size of the €805 million penalty. The regulator cited the sheer volume of 20 million affected accounts, the fact that the scanning feature stayed active over time, and what it called a lack of co-operation from Meta during the inquiry. The company now has 60 days to turn off the feature by default and set up a separate consent system for anyone who actually wants it.

Meta, which runs Instagram and WhatsApp alongside Facebook, plans to appeal the decision. Regulators have had a busy season with the company’s privacy ledger. The Italian penalty lands just after a United States court loss last month, where a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion for misleading the public about data handling over a span of years.

Watch for whether Meta complies with the 60-day deadline to disable the gallery suggestions by default while its planned appeal moves through the Italian courts.

Source: The Daily Star

This article was researched and drafted with AI assistance.

Photo by Samer Daboul on Pexels

Italy’s data protection authority has fined Meta €805 million, or about $887 million, for scanning Android users’ photos and videos without getting their specific consent. The ruling hits Meta’s core practice of bundling broad device access into a single setup step. According to the regulator, roughly 20 million smartphone owners in the country were caught up in the practice.

The issue sits inside the main Facebook application. The software asked people for a single, app-wide authorisation to open their media storage. Once inside, it did not just upload the files people deliberately picked. It crawled local photo galleries to generate automated suggestions for future social media posts, mining stored snapshots without telling owners that the broad toggle covered background scanning too.

Italian officials pointed to several factors to justify the size of the €805 million penalty. The regulator cited the sheer volume of 20 million affected accounts, the fact that the scanning feature stayed active over time, and what it called a lack of co-operation from Meta during the inquiry. The company now has 60 days to turn off the feature by default and set up a separate consent system for anyone who actually wants it.

Meta, which runs Instagram and WhatsApp alongside Facebook, plans to appeal the decision. Regulators have had a busy season with the company’s privacy ledger. The Italian penalty lands just after a United States court loss last month, where a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion for misleading the public about data handling over a span of years.

Watch for whether Meta complies with the 60-day deadline to disable the gallery suggestions by default while its planned appeal moves through the Italian courts.

Source: The Daily Star

This article was researched and drafted with AI assistance.

Photo by Samer Daboul on Pexels

Italy’s data protection authority has fined Meta €805 million, or about $887 million, for scanning Android users’ photos and videos without getting their specific consent. The ruling hits Meta’s core practice of bundling broad device access into a single setup step. According to the regulator, roughly 20 million smartphone owners in the country were caught up in the practice.

The issue sits inside the main Facebook application. The software asked people for a single, app-wide authorisation to open their media storage. Once inside, it did not just upload the files people deliberately picked. It crawled local photo galleries to generate automated suggestions for future social media posts, mining stored snapshots without telling owners that the broad toggle covered background scanning too.

Italian officials pointed to several factors to justify the size of the €805 million penalty. The regulator cited the sheer volume of 20 million affected accounts, the fact that the scanning feature stayed active over time, and what it called a lack of co-operation from Meta during the inquiry. The company now has 60 days to turn off the feature by default and set up a separate consent system for anyone who actually wants it.

Meta, which runs Instagram and WhatsApp alongside Facebook, plans to appeal the decision. Regulators have had a busy season with the company’s privacy ledger. The Italian penalty lands just after a United States court loss last month, where a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion for misleading the public about data handling over a span of years.

Watch for whether Meta complies with the 60-day deadline to disable the gallery suggestions by default while its planned appeal moves through the Italian courts.

Source: The Daily Star

This article was researched and drafted with AI assistance.