Italy’s national data protection authority has levied a landmark €805 million (equivalent to £670 million, $887 million) penalty against social media conglomerate Meta, over alleged violations of user privacy rules that allowed the Facebook app to access millions of Android users’ personal photo and video libraries without explicit, targeted consent. The regulatory body confirmed that roughly 20 million Italian smartphone users were never clearly notified that a built-in Facebook feature, designed to pull gallery content to generate post creation suggestions, would access their full stored media collections. Instead of requesting standalone, specific permission for this media suggestion function, Meta bundled the gallery access request into a single broad app-wide authorization prompt, with no accompanying clear disclosure explaining that the permission would be used to surface personal photos and videos as draft post ideas. Regulators emphasized that the scale of affected users, the ongoing nature of the privacy lapse for users who have not updated their Facebook app or previously granted the broad gallery permission, and Meta’s insufficient cooperation during the investigation all factored into the size of the fine. The penalty ranks among the largest ever issued by an Italian regulatory agency against a major global technology firm. The watchdog has also issued a binding order requiring Meta to fully disable the auto-enabled media suggestion feature within 60 days, and implement a separate, standalone consent process that explicitly asks users for permission to access their photo and video libraries for post suggestion purposes. This enforcement action comes on the heels of a separate landmark ruling last month, where a New Mexico US court ordered Meta to pay a $25 billion penalty – the largest fine in the company’s history – after finding the firm deliberately misled the public for years about its data handling practices for Facebook users. The BBC has submitted a formal request for comment from Meta regarding the Italian regulatory ruling.