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
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.”
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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.
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Line, which has 186 million users worldwide – of which just under half are in Japan – has since blocked access to user data at the Chinese affiliate, the company spokesman said.
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.
Messages sent via Line can only be read by the sender and receiver as app, like other messaging apps, encrypts message content end to end.
Z Holdings is controlled by SoftBank through holding company A Holdings, which is jointly owned by SoftBank and South Korea’s Naver, the former operator of Line.
Z Holdings, which plans to invest 500 billion yen (US$4.58 billion) in technology over the next five years, announced the Line tie-up last year but was forced to delay the move from October because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
