Media: Japan messenger app Line let engineers in China access user data without consent

Four engineers at a company in China that performs system development for Line were allowed to access servers that contained the names, phone numbers and e-mails of users, the Asahi newspaper said. — Reuters

TOKYO: Japanese messaging app Line, owned by SoftBank Corp’s Z Holdings Corp, allowed Chinese engineers at a Shanghai affiliate to access data on Japanese users without gaining their consent, Japanese media reported on March 17.

“There hasn’t been anything that breached legal or regulatory boundaries,” a spokesman for Line said. “We always put ourselves to a standard were we want to be as transparent as possible.”