LINE Privacy Policy
1.Introduction
We, LINE Corporation (“LINE,” “we,” “us,” or “our), believe your privacy is very important.
To fulfill our commitment to respecting and protecting your privacy, we will adhere to our basic principles as explained in detail below, and crafted this Privacy Policy in accordance with these basic principles:
1.We inform you of the personal information that will be collected, and seek your consent to collect, use, or disclose your personal information.
2.We identify the purposes of use for collecting your personal information.
3.We collect only information that is necessary to carry out the identified purposes of use.
4.We use or disclose your personal information only for the purposes for which it is collected, except with your consent or as required or permitted by law, and we will keep your information only as long as necessary to fulfill those purposes.
5.We endeavor to make sure that your personal information is accurate, complete, and up-to-date.
6.We protect your personal information by appropriate security safeguards.
7.We make our policies and practices for the handling of your personal information as transparent as possible.
8.You will have access to your personal information and will be able to correct your personal information as appropriate.
9.We will be accountable to you. We are always interested in hearing your opinion regarding our compliance with these principles, this Privacy Policy, and applicable law.
2.What This Privacy Policy Applies To
a.What Is This Privacy Policy?
This Privacy Policy explains how LINE will handle and safeguard your personal information, and the choices you have to access and control your personal information. This Privacy Policy applies to: personal information you provide us when you use the LINE Messenger app (“LINE App”), optional services made available within the LINE App, and other apps that integrate with or work in conjunction with the LINE App (collectively “Apps”); personal information you provide us when you visit websites maintained by us relating to our Apps (“Websites”) (Apps and Websites are collectively referred to as the “Service”); and personal information about you provided by users of the Service.
To make our Privacy Policy easier to understand, we may provide translations as a reference. A
Spanish translation and a
traditional Chinese translation are now available. However, in the event that a translation contradicts the English version of this Privacy Policy, the
English version takes precedence, to the extent it is permitted under applicable law.
This Privacy Policy applies if you are using the Service from anywhere outside of Japan or Korea. If you are using the Service in Japan or Korea, please refer to our
Japan Privacy Policy or
Korea Privacy Policy respectively.
b.What Privacy Policy Applies to Other LINE Services?
Users may request additional services from LINE or LINE affiliates. Because the needs and choices of each user vary, we provide separate privacy policies or addendums to this Privacy Policy for certain additional services. The separate privacy policies and addendums explain the types of information we collect, their purposes of use, and other policies that may apply to that service. When you choose to use an additional service, you will be informed of the applicable privacy policy or addendum, which applies in addition to and may modify this Privacy Policy, before you can access the additional service.
Please note that, you can check your applicable privacy policy or addendum within the Apps that you are using or Websites you are visiting.
3.Types of Information We Collect
a.What Information Does LINE Collect?
To provide you the Service, LINE collects and uses the following types of information:
i.Information for Account Creation and Registration
When you register with us and create a LINE account to use the LINE App, LINE will ask you to provide your telephone number. This information is necessary because we send text message via SMS to phone number provided as part of our ongoing efforts to detect and deter unauthorized or fraudulent use of or abuse of the Service.
Alternatively, you may choose to create a LINE account using your Facebook account when, for example, you wish not to provide your telephone number. In such a case, it is optional to provide your telephone number. Please note that, we do not collect your Facebook password.
If you choose to enable “Allow Others to Add” feature, your telephone number is used to let other users who have your telephone number in their address books add you as a LINE Friend. Please note that you can at any time choose to enable or disable this “Allow Others to Add” feature in “Settings” > “Friends” > “Contacts.”
ii.Device Information and Access Logs When You Use Our Service
When you use the Service or visit our Website, we may obtain and maintain certain electronic identification or log data from your mobile device or personal computer such as: OS type, IP address, browser information including type and language settings, device identifier or mobile application identifier.
This information is necessary as part of our ongoing efforts to detect and deter unauthorized or fraudulent use of or abuse of the Service, as well as to provide you and optimize the Service for your environment.
b.What Other Information Might LINE Collect?
To improve your experience when using the Service, we provide additional functionalities, including the ability to access your LINE account from multiple devices, help you find your friends, or help you enjoy the Service more. If you choose to use such functionalities or your LINE account on multiple devices, we may ask you to provide following types of information:
i.Email Address [OPTIONAL]
You may want to access your LINE account from multiple devices (“Multiple Device Login”) or to transfer your LINE account from one device to another (“Account Transfer”). If you wish to enable the Multiple Devices Login or to transfer your LINE account to a different device, you will need to provide your email address and a password and/or PIN code, so that we may associate these devices with your LINE account.
Please note that, if you change your mind later and decide you no longer wish to provide your email address, you can at any time remove it in “Settings” > “Accounts” menu in the LINE App.
ii.LINE ID [OPTIONAL]
You may want to make it easier for your LINE friends to find you. If you so choose, you can assign a LINE ID to your LINE account, and allow your friends to find you through your LINE ID. Alternatively, you may choose not to allow other LINE users to contact you using your LINE ID. Please note that, your LINE ID is not visible to other LINE users, and it may be a pseudonym.
iii.Contact Telephone Numbers in Your Address Book [OPTIONAL]
You may wish to make it easier for you to find your friends so that you can communicate using LINE App. If you wish to ask us to help you find your friends, you may want to consider enabling “Auto Add Friends” feature. If you choose to enable “Auto Add Friends” feature, we will collect the telephone numbers (and e-mail addresses if issued by Japanese telecom companies) in your mobile device’s address book, and enable you add friends in the LINE App who have consented to being found by their telephone number or e-mail address (“Account Matching Service”). Once you have added a friend in the LINE App, you can call them or send them messages over the LINE App. We will collect information from only the telephone number (and e-mail addresses if issued by Japanese telecom companies) fields in your mobile device’s address book; we do not collect contact names or any information from other data fields. You can at any time change your mind and disable Account Matching Service by turning off this feature under “Settings” -> “Friends” -> “Contacts.” If you do so, the information you provided by this feature will be deleted.
If you would like to invite individual friends or contacts to connect with you on the LINE App, you may send them invitations directly via SMS or e-mail directly from your mobile device using the address book in your mobile phone. When you use the invitation function in the LINE App (“Tell a Friend Service”), we will access your address book to identify your friends. After your friend(s) have been identified, you can send invitations directly to individual friends and contact via SMS or e-mail on your mobile device telephone. LINE does not send invitations as part of the Tell a Friend Service.
iv.Location Information [OPTIONAL]
To use LINE App, you are not required to provide your location information (“geolocation”). However, we provide features that utilize geolocation for your convenience and to improve your user experience:
If you wish to add nearby LINE user(s), you may want to use the “Shake It!” feature, which allows you to add nearby user(s) by shaking your smartphone. You can start the process by choosing the feature under “Add Friends” menu, and start shaking your smartphone along with your nearby friends. Once the process is initiated, we will ask you to access your geolocation so that we can match you with the nearby LINE user(s). Please note that, you can only find users who also initiated the process. Users who do not initiate the “Shake It!” process cannot be found as we do not access their geolocation.
You may wish to receive information about nearby shops provided by “Official Account” in the LINE App. If you choose to receive information from an “Official Account” by pressing the button, we will obtain geolocation via your mobile phone so that we can provide information about shops nearby you.
In both cases, collection and use of your geolocation is one-time-only (ad hoc), meaning we delete the geolocation after we use and do not retain. Also, we do not aggregate your geolocation to create geolocation history.
In other cases where we collect or use your geolocation data in an additional separate service, we will make sure that we provide notice and/or obtain your consent.
v.Contact Information for Customer Support [OPTIONAL]
There may be occasions where you wish to contact us to seek customer support service. If you contact us via our Contact Form or by other means, we may obtain and maintain any information you choose to provide, including your name, contact info such as your email address, phone number, as well as information about your mobile device or personal commuter such as device type, and OS type. We will use this information to address and investigate the issues you have forwarded to us, to provide you support, and to improve our customer support service.
vi.Contact Information for Promotional Events and Customer Surveys [OPTIONAL]
If you choose to participate in promotional events or surveys that LINE offers from time to time, we might ask your contact details (e.g., name, mailing address, phone number, email address, gender and date of birth) to administer the event, such as to confirm participation eligibility for the event, to enable you to fill out a questionnaire, to conduct to deliver the prizes to you.
vii.Payment Information [OPTIONAL]
If you choose to purchase or use a fee-based service and pay for such service by means other than in-app purchases via iTunes or Google Play, we may collect your credit card information. We will use your credit card information only to process your purchase or use our fee-based service. Please note that, we will not retain your credit card information because your credit-card settlement will be handled by appropriate payment agencies.
c.What About Information I Create About Myself and Share With Others?
i.User-Generated Content [OPTIONAL]
In addition to the information describe above, you may choose to create “user-generated content,” such as your profile information (i.e., “display name,” profile picture, and the phrase you choose to show under your “WHAT’S UP?” status), text and audio messages, photos, videos, geolocation information, or the contact information of your LINE friends, and share your user-generated content with other users. You may choose how much or little of your user-generated content you would like to share and with whom you share it when you create messages by selecting the recipients of your user-generated contents and/or by the settings in the LINE App.
Please remember that the user-generated content you share with others can be copied, stored, or disseminated by the recipients and accessed by unintended recipients due to the nature of digital data. We encourage you to pay close attention when you generate and share your information or contents.
4.How We Use and Handle Your Information
a.How Does LINE Use My Information?
To provide the Service, LINE, as a data controller or joint data controller, uses your information for the following purposes:
•to provide you the Service via your mobile phone or personal computer and to allow you to transmit your user-generated content to other LINE users;
•to verify your identity;
•to allow you to use your LINE account on multiple devices and transfer your LINE account to another device;
•to help you find people you know that already are LINE users so that you can connect using LINE; and, upon your request, to allow other LINE users to connect with you;
•to enable you to sync other applications offered by LINE, LINE affiliates, and LINE business partners together with your LINE account and to share information between the applications you use;
•to respond to requests you may make to use services provided by LINE other than the LINE app service;
•to detect and deter unauthorized or fraudulent use of or abuse of the Service;
•to improve and/or optimize the Service;
•to enable us to provide customer support, and to respond effectively to your inquiries and claims;
•to conduct user satisfaction surveys;
•to provide you with information regarding the Service;
•to measure the effectiveness of advertisements that we place on the Internet or in other media;
•to notify users of any other important information regarding the Service, if necessary;
•to identify winners of promotional contests, to send gifts to those winners, and to deliver purchased products and the like;
•to aggregate anonymized statistical data regarding the Service; and
•to comply with applicable laws or legal obligations.
If, however, we provide you with more specific purpose(s) of use either at the time we ask you to provide your personal information or through another means, then such notice will take precedence over the general purposes of use stated in Section 4.a of this Privacy Policy.
b.How Does LINE Protect My Information?
To fulfill our commitment to respecting and protecting your privacy and the confidentiality of your information, LINE has implemented industry-standard safeguards to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, misuse, alternation, or destruction of your information. More specifically, we received ISO/IEC 27001:2005 certification in 2007, and SOC2, SOC3 (SysTrust) certifications for the LINE App service.
Because no method of electronic transmission or method of data storage is perfect or impenetrable, we cannot guarantee that your information will be absolutely safe from intrusion during transmission or while stored in our systems.
To help protect your privacy and confidentiality of your information, we also need to ask for your cooperation regarding the following: Please do not share your password with others or use the same passwords you use for other services. Also, please notify us in the event you suspect any unauthorized use of your account or any other breach of security via our
Contact Form .
c.Where Is My Information Transmitted and Stored?
To provide the Service in a reliable and responsible manner, LINE processes and stores your information on secure servers which may be physically located in different countries around the world, including countries outside the European Economic Area.
By continuing to use the Service, you agree that your information may be internationally transferred and that LINE can process and store your information in a country other than where you submitted.
d.How Long Does LINE Keep My Information?
LINE retains your personal information you provide while: your account is in existence; for the length of time needed to fulfill any of the applicable purposes of use described in this Privacy Policy; or to comply with applicable laws and regulations.
We may retain your personal information even after your account is closed if retention is reasonably necessary:
•to comply with applicable laws, regulations or legal obligations;
•to provide and complete customer support service;
•to resolve disputes between or with LINE users; or
•to detect and deter unauthorized or fraudulent use of or abuse of the Service.
e.Does LINE Use Outside Service Providers or Agents?
To facilitate and provide you with the Service, it sometimes is necessary for LINE to request third party partner service providers or agents to help us process and/or store your personal information. We strictly evaluate the partner service providers and agents, and we make every effort to ensure that they have established appropriate and secure information administration and organizational control systems, and we strictly require that they comply with applicable laws and regulations. We also require that they access your personal information only the extent necessary to perform tasks on our behalf.
f.Does LINE Give My Information to Third Parties?
Other than as described in this Privacy Policy and, where relevant, other applicable privacy policies or addendums, LINE will never provide your information to any third parties without your consent, unless we believe in good faith that we are required or permitted to do so under applicable laws or to protect and defend LINE’s rights and/or property.
g.Does LINE Use Cookies or Other Similar Technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies, including local storage:
•to help us maintain your session when you use the Service;
•to enhance security;
•to remember information about your browser and your preferences; and
•to help us understand how people use the Services and improve the Service.
oFor example, we may use Google Analytics to assist us with this.
By continuing to user the Service, you are agreeing to our use of cookies and similar technologies in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
Most browsers allow you to control whether or not to accept cookies. If you, however, deactivate cookies or limit the ability to set cookies, you may not be able to use certain parts or all functions, or limit your overall user experience.
h.Does LINE Use Third-Party Modules?
LINE uses third party advertising agencies to place advertisements on the Internet or in other media. To measure the effectiveness of the advertisements to determine how much to pay to the advertising agencies, we install third-party modules within the Apps. We may also install third-party modules within the Apps in order to help us understand how the Service is used. Details regarding the Apps in which such third-party modules will be installed can be viewed here .
5.Your Choices, Your Rights
It is possible that LINE obtains personal information relating to individuals who are currently not users of the Service. Please note that, regardless of whether or not you are a user of the Service, you have the choices and rights under this section if we hold your personal information.
a.How Do I Control My Information?
LINE has tried to make it as easy as possible for you to have control over your personal information. You can confirm and revise most of your personal information directly within the LINE App at any time. For example:
•under your “Profile” in Settings, you can confirm your device phone number, you can confirm and revise your display name and profile picture;
•under “Accounts” in Settings, you can confirm and/or revise your registered e-mail address. You can also delete your registered e-mail address or delink your Facebook account.
In addition to your ability to check, correct, block, or delete your information directly through the LINE App, if we hold your personal information, you can always send us a written request at any time to confirm, correct, block, or delete any other personal information that we hold which cannot be confirmed directly on the LINE App. Upon verification of your identity, we will respond to your request within a reasonable period of time and in accordance with relevant law. To check, correct, block, or delete your information, please contact us via this Contact Form . If you would like to send us a written request, please refer to Section 6.b for our mailing address.
If you no longer wish to use the Service or if you no longer wish to consent to LINE’s collection and use of your personal information, you may choose to delete your entire account directly through the LINE App. We will take reasonable measures to delete your information in accordance with Section 4.d.
b.What If I Change My Mind?
LINE has worked hard to make sure that you can have as much control over your personal information as possible.
If you change your mind regarding how much information you wish to continue to share or disclose on the Service going forward, you always can change the settings in the LINE App relating to, among other examples:
•your profile information such as your profile picture, your display name, or a personal phrase showing under the “WHAT’S UP?” caption;
•whether to allow other LINE users to contact you using your LINE ID;
•whether to register your e-mail address;
•whether to link your account with Facebook;
•whether to block or unblock certain LINE users;
•whether to add contacts automatically using the address book in your mobile phone; or
•whether to allow other LINE users, who already have your telephone number in their address book, to reach you via LINE; or
•whether and with whom to share or not share your posts on your Timeline.
6.Other Important Information for You
a.A Special Note about Children in the United States of America
The LINE App service is intended for a general audience and is not directed to or intended be used by children under the age of 13 (“Children”).
We understand the special necessity to protect children's online privacy, and we do not knowingly collect any personal information from Children.
If, however, you believe we have collected any personal information from Children, then please let us know via this Contact Form . If you would like to send us a written request, please refer to Section 6.b for our mailing address.
If we learn that we have inadvertently collected personal information from Children, we will deactivate the relevant account(s) and will take reasonable measures to promptly delete such personal information from our records.
b.I have Questions/Comments/Concerns
If yo have any questions, comments, or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our other privacy policies or practices, please contact us via
Contact Form or by writing to:
LINE Corporation
Attn: Privacy Policy
27th Floor Shibuya Hikarie
2-21-1 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
150-8510 Japan
c.Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may modify our Privacy Policy from time to time for various reasons including to improve our privacy practices, to reflect changes to our Service, and to comply with relevant law. The last time we updated this Privacy Policy was 10th of November, 2014, and it was initially released on 15th of August, 2012.
When we make any material changes to our Privacy Policy, we will provide notice to you on our Service, or by other reasonable means. We encourage you to review changes carefully. If you agree to the changes, then please continue to use our Service. If you, however, do not agree to any of the changes and you no longer wish to use our Service, you may choose to close your account. Continuing to use our Service after a notice of changes has been communicated to you or published on our Service constitutes your acceptance of changes and consent to the modified Privacy Policy.