WHAT THE POLICIES SAY

LINE is Japan's dominant messaging app, operated by LY Corporation — the October 2023 merger of LINE and Yahoo! JAPAN — controlled through A Holdings, a 50/50 SoftBank–Naver joint venture. The LY privacy policy covers registration data, device and ad identifiers, usage and location data, opt-in address-book upload, and interest-based ad distribution across LY services. One-to-one messages are end-to-end encrypted by default via Letter Sealing, scoped to text and location messages. Data may be provided to third parties and group companies, including recipients outside Japan. In 2021, engineers at a Shanghai contractor could access Japanese user data, prompting government offices to stop using the app and a data-localization pledge; a November 2023 breach via NAVER Cloud (~440,000 records) drew ministry administrative guidance, including a demand to review NAVER's capital control.

TRACK RECORD

1 ENFORCEMENT ACTION

[2024-04-01]

LY Corporation received administrative guidance from Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on March 5, 2024 over the 2023 data leakage and submitted a remediation report on April 1, 2024, committing among other measures to block network connections between the former LINE environment and NAVER Cloud, apply two-factor authentication, and switch Security Operation Center functions outsourced to NAVER Cloud to a Japanese company.

lycorp.co.jp ↗

TIMELINE

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RECEIPTS

11 ON FILE

[2016-09-29] · COLLECTION

LINE's Encryption Whitepaper (version 1.0, September 29, 2016) documents that Letter Sealing end-to-end encryption is enabled by default on mobile clients, and states its scope as applying to text messages and location messages — other content types are outside the documented end-to-end encryption scope.

web.archive.org ↗

[2026-07-31] · COLLECTION

The LY Corporation Privacy Policy (formulated October 1, 2023; last updated July 31, 2026), which governs the LINE app, states that LY collects registration phone number and email, device and network information including ad identifiers, Cookie IDs and IP address, service-use history, and location information, and accesses phone numbers in the device address book only when the user enables that feature, for friend-adding and preventing unauthorized use.

lycorp.co.jp ↗

[2021-03-17] · OWNERSHIP TRANSPARENCY

CNBC reported on March 17, 2021 that LINE's parent Z Holdings was controlled by SoftBank Corp through the holding company A Holdings, jointly owned by SoftBank Corp and South Korea's Naver Corp, LINE's former operator — the two-parent joint-control structure that remains above LY Corporation after the October 2023 LINE–Yahoo! JAPAN merger.

cnbc.com ↗

[2024-04-01] · OWNERSHIP TRANSPARENCY

In its April 1, 2024 report on the administrative guidance issued by Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on March 5, 2024, LY Corporation stated it was requesting related companies to review the relationship under which it is subject to a substantial degree of capital control from NAVER, which is simultaneously its subcontractor.

lycorp.co.jp ↗

SHARING

LY Corporation publishes a transparency report covering requests for disclosure of user information from law enforcement agencies, and states that in principle it does not provide user information to third parties without the user's consent, responding to law-enforcement requests only after examination and to the extent permitted by law.

lycorp.co.jp ↗

[2026-07-31] · SHARING

The LY Corporation Privacy Policy (last updated July 31, 2026) permits providing Personal Data to third parties including Partners — in the stated cases after deleting information that can directly identify a user — permits sharing among group companies, and states that recipients include subcontractors and group companies located outside the user's country, listing Japan, the United States, Korea, and other countries.

lycorp.co.jp ↗

[2021-03-17] · TRACK RECORD

The Record reported on March 17, 2021, citing Asahi Shimbun, that four engineers at a Shanghai-based software firm subcontracted by LINE Corporation for AI development accessed LINE user data — including names, phone numbers, email addresses, and LINE IDs — on 32 occasions since August 2018, and that LINE Corporation and Z Holdings published apologies.

therecord.media ↗

[2021-03-24] · TRACK RECORD

The Register reported on March 24, 2021 that LINE removed its Chinese affiliate's access to personal data after Japanese government officials stopped using the app over the disclosures, and that LINE announced user information stored in South Korea would be moved to Japan by that September.

theregister.com ↗

[2023-11-27] · TRACK RECORD

On November 27, 2023, LY Corporation published a 'Notice and apology regarding information leakage due to unauthorized access', disclosing that malware on a subcontractor employee's PC at affiliate NAVER Cloud Corporation led to unauthorized access via a shared authentication system, leaking or potentially leaking 302,569 user records (including 129,894 Japanese users), 86,105 business-partner records, and 51,353 employee records; the company stated the leaked information did not include bank accounts, credit cards, or LINE chat messages.

lycorp.co.jp ↗

[2024-04-01] · TRACK RECORD

lycorp.co.jp ↗

[2026-07-31] · TRACKING TECH

The LY Corporation Privacy Policy (last updated July 31, 2026) states that LY collects ad identifiers and Cookie IDs, uses third-party modules and analytical tools including Google Analytics, and distributes its own and third-party ads selected using user attributes, posted content, and search history across its services.

lycorp.co.jp ↗

LAST REVIEWED 2026-08-04 · METHODOLOGY v1.7