Japan messenger app Line finds Chinese engineers at affiliate accessed user data: Asahi

[TOKYO] Japanese messaging app Line, owned by SoftBank's Z Holdings Corp, allowed Chinese engineers at an affiliate firm in Shanghai to access data on Japanese users without consent, the Asahi newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Z Holdings, formerly Yahoo Japan, announced a merger with Line last year, which was delayed from October to this month because of regulatory delay caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The merger is part of a strategy to better compete with internet rivals in Japan and overseas.

REUTERS