Developers of Japan-based social media app Line have stopped the work of their Shanghai affiliate, after reports that it let Chinese engineers access Japanese users’ data without informing them.

Line had restricted user data access for the Chinese team, and stopped its tasks of developing new functions and maintaining and developing other applications, a statement on Wednesday said.

Data that was stored in South Korea would be gradually moved back to Japan, it said. Photos, videos and other files from chats would be transferred by June this year, and content on official accounts would be moved before June next year.

The privacy policy would be updated to clearly list countries where user data might be handled, it said. Line would also limit staff access to data to the minimum possible, it added.

Line said its Japanese headquarters on Tuesday submitted a report to the official Personal Information Protection Commission to explain its future direction. The new measures aligned with an upcoming Japanese law for the protection of personal data, it said.

The company stressed that personal data had not been leaked. Records showed no unauthorized or inappropriate access of data in Taiwan or other places, it added.

Four engineers at the Line Digital Technology (Shanghai) Limited, who were in charge of system maintenance, were allowed to access servers in Japan from 2018, Japanese media reported last week. Those servers contained users’ names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses.

The Shanghai company is a fully owned subsidiary of Line China. It is tasked with handling internal tools, developing artificial intelligence functions and testing games.

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