Japan messenger app Line let engineers in China access user data without consent, government to investigate

Japan has recently tightened laws and regulation around the use and storage of personal data held by internet companies

Line, which has 186 million users worldwide, has since blocked access to user data at the Chinese affiliate

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Line this month became part of Z Holdings, formerly Yahoo Japan, creating a US$30 billion domestic internet heavyweight to compete against local and US rivals. Photo: Reuters

Published: 3:38pm, 17 Mar 2021Updated: 6:01pm, 17 Mar 2021

Japan’s government said on Wednesday it would investigate messaging app Line, owned by SoftBank’s Z Holdings, after Japanese media reports that it let Chinese engineers at a Shanghai affiliate to access Japanese users’ data without telling them.

Under Japanese privacy regulations, companies have to inform users when their personal data is sent overseas, public broadcaster NHK said.

“We can’t say yet if Line breached regulations or not, and we are conducting an investigation to find out,” a government official responsible for overseeing privacy regulations said. If Line is found to have acted improperly then the Cabinet Office can direct it to make improvements, he added.

“There hasn’t been anything that breached legal or regulatory boundaries,” a spokesman for Line said. “We will continue to respond to laws and regulations in all jurisdictions, including Japan.”

In a statement posted later on its website, the company apologised for causing any concern and for not adequately explaining policies regarding data management to users. No inappropriate access occurred, it added.

Four engineers at a company in China, who perform system maintenance for Line, were allowed to access servers in Japan from 2018 that contained the names, telephone numbers and email addresses of users, local media said.