UPDATE 1-Japan messenger app Line finds Chinese engineers at affiliate accessed user data -Asahi

Reuters · 03/17/2021 00:17
UPDATE 1-Japan messenger app Line finds Chinese engineers at affiliate accessed user data -Asahi

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- Japanese messaging app Line, owned by SoftBank's Z Holdings Corp 4689.T, 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.


(Reporting by Takashi Umekawa and Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Christopher Cushing)

((ran.kim@thomsonreuters.com; +81-3-4520-1228))