By Our Reporter
Italian regulators have fined Meta, parent company of Facebook, $880 million over alleged violations of users’ privacy involving access to photographs, videos and related personal information without their specific consent.
The country’s data protection authority announced the fine on Saturday, accusing Meta of accessing photographs, videos and associated metadata belonging to Italian users through its Facebook application for Android devices without obtaining specific consent or adequately informing users.
In a statement, the authority said Meta failed to provide users with sufficient information about how their personal data was being accessed and processed.
The penalty ranks among the largest fines imposed by Italian authorities on a major technology company.
In 2021, Amazon was fined more than €1.1 billion, approximately $1.2 billion, for violating competition regulations. However, the penalty was later reduced to €752 million, equivalent to about $829 million, following an appeal.
Meta could also challenge the latest penalty through an appeal.
As of Saturday afternoon, the technology company had yet to respond to a request for comment.
The latest development adds to Meta’s growing legal challenges over data privacy and the handling of users’ personal information.
In September, a judge in New Mexico ordered the company to pay $25 billion to the state after a jury found that it had misled consumers for years regarding its data privacy policies.
Meta subsequently expressed disagreement with the jury’s verdict.
The Italian fine underscores increasing regulatory scrutiny of major technology companies over their handling of personal data and the need to obtain users’ informed consent before accessing private information.