Japan’s Line Accused Of Letting Chinese Engineers Tap User Data

Messaging app provider Line is being investigated by the Japanese government over accusations that user data was accessed by Chinese engineers without informing people, which is a violation of data protection mandates that have been amended in Japan but won’t go into effect until early 2022.

“We can’t say yet if Line breached regulations or not, and we are conducting an investigation to find out,” a government official told Reuters. He added that in the event Line is found guilty, the Cabinet Office would issue directives that would lead to improvements. 

A Line spokesperson told Reuters that the company didn’t break any laws or push regulatory confines. “We will continue to respond to laws and regulations in all jurisdictions, including Japan,” the spokesperson said.

Line, which is owned by SoftBank’s Z Holdings Corp, has a user base exceeding 86 million people in Japan. The company said that its data protection guidance indicates that users’ personal data could be sent overseas, but it didn’t include the names of any foreign countries, which violates the law in Japan.

Data privacy rules in Japan require businesses to inform users anytime their personal details are sent overseas, according to The Japan Times. Line told the news outlet that a Chinese affiliate working for the company on artificial intelligence (AI) technologies got into its database a minimum of 32 times since 2018.

Line maintained that there wasn’t anything inappropriate accessed and it blocked China from getting into its database in February. The company said it reported the matter to the government in Japan and will create a third-party panel to investigate what happened.

At a Japanese news conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said that the government was going to look into the matter, per The Japan Times. A government commission will also investigate if Line adequately supervised the Chinese affiliate.

SoftBank’s Z Holdings Corp, which operates the PayPay app, is planning to merge with Line. PayPay took advantage of SoftBank’s extensive sales network and brought in 36 million users in less than three years since launching.

Two years ago, Line Pay partnered with WeChat Pay. Merchants signing up for Line Pay can also accept WeChat Pay and Naver Pay for payments without any need to register or undergo another screening process. Merchants can manage everything through a single account.