Spain to investigate Meta for alleged Android privacy breaches

An Android display is shown at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, June 2012. (AP / Paul Sakuma)

Spain’s parliament will investigate Meta for possible privacy violations of its Facebook and Instagram users, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday.

“In Spain, the law is above any algorithm or any large technology platform. And anyone who violates our rights will pay the consequences,” Sanchez said in a statement.

The investigation stems from international research that found Meta had used a hidden mechanism to track the web activity of Android device users, Sanchez’s office said.

Meta said it would work with Spanish officials on the issue.

“Meta takes privacy very seriously and provides a range of tools to help people control how their data is used. We look forward to engaging constructively with the authorities on this matter,” a Meta spokesperson said in a text message.

Spain’s investigation into the U.S. tech giant threatens to further sour relations with Washington, which has rounded on Madrid over its failure to meet NATO spending targets and for its friendliness with Beijing.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has also criticized the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which seeks to curb the power of Big Tech, and the Digital Services Act, which requires large online platforms to tackle illegal and harmful content.

Spain’s government said Meta may have violated various European Union laws on security and privacy including its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the ePrivacy Directive, the DMA and the DSA.

Meta, which is led by U.S. billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, will be called to testify before a lower house committee, it added.

The U.S. company has had several legal clashes with the European Commission, which in preliminary findings in October said Meta and TikTok had breached their legal obligation to grant researchers adequate access to public data.

The Commission fined Meta 798 million euros (US$923 million) in 2024 for abusive practices benefiting Facebook Marketplace while in July last year it charged the company for failing to comply with the DMA in its new pay or consent advertising model.