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nsoam • today at 2:23 PM • 5 replies • view on HN

How did they access users photos without consent? Did they run some exploit on Android to access the photo without showing the user the consent prompt? The article is really lacking in details.


Replies

contubernio • today at 6:20 PM

In Europe, unlike the US, consent has to be real. It's bad faith to offer ten pages of stuff no one reads and no one understands and interpret a click as consent. EU law generally requires a good faith offer and informed consent.

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kevin_thibedeau • today at 3:02 PM

I had an HMD Nokia Android phone where the camera app had Facebook integration. It reached out to their servers every time the app started despite my not ever having had a Facebook account. I wouldn't be surprised if they also used this backdoor to access photos via the camera app's permissions.

Suffice to say, Nokia is on my blacklist of companies to never patronize again.

klez • today at 2:41 PM

This explains a bit better what the issue is: https://en.ilsole24ore.com/art/facebooks-data-protection-reg...

TL;DR: they didn't thoroughly explain the users what they were consenting to when giving the app access to the gallery.

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bahmboo • today at 3:17 PM

They didn't

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7bit • today at 2:36 PM

> The investigation, launched in 2025, established that access to a user's camera roll is requested with a single permission for the entire app, which the authority said covers multiple features with different needs. The authorization request was preceded by a generic warning that didn't allow users to understand that they were authorizing picture and video suggestions, the authority said.

https://www.politico.eu/article/italy-hits-meta-with-e805m-f...

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