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Important: The contents of this article only apply to LINE accounts created with LINE versions earlier than 13.11.0 if you're not using LINE in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, or Thailand.

When you perform the operations listed below, LINE accesses information in your device's contacts to make it easy to find your close friends. (Only the telephone numbers in your contact information are transferred to our servers, and all of the information is encrypted.)

• When you sign up for LINE and select OK at the “Your Address Book will be sent to LINE’s server” prompt.
• When you turn on Auto-add friends in your settings or tap the refresh icon next to "Last auto-add" and select OK at the “Your Address Book will be sent to LINE’s server” prompt.

LINE adds mutual contacts in your device's contacts to your friend list automatically. If only one of you has the other added as a contact, the one who has the contact information on their device will be added to the other's Friend recommendations, and the recommended person will be added to the other's friend list.

Your own phone number and phone numbers obtained from your device's contacts will not be disclosed and will be protected as follows.

• Your contact information will be used only if you agree to the terms & conditions of LINE when signing up. The terms and conditions describe when and how LINE will use your personal information.
• If you agree to allow LINE to find your friends, the telephone numbers in your device's contacts will be encrypted and securely sent to our servers.
• We use encrypted text when comparing your information with existing user information.

For more information about our privacy policy, see the LY Corporation Privacy Policy.

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If you want to prevent others from adding you as a friend in the future, see the information below that matches your situation.
Note: If you want to remove a user who is already your friend on LINE from your friends, see Hiding/blocking/deleting LINE accounts.

Preventing others from adding you by phone number
Note: The contents of this section only apply to LINE accounts created with LINE versions earlier than 13.11.0 if you're not using LINE in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, or Thailand.

If you don’t want people that know your phone number to automatically add you as a friend:
1. Tap the Home tab > Settings.

Note: Tap here to go to Settings from your smartphone.
2. Tap Friends.
3. Turn OFF Allow others to add me.

Preventing others from adding you by LINE ID

If you want to prevent others from adding you as a friend by searching for your ID:
1. Tap the Home tab > Settings > Profile.

Note: Tap here to go to your profile from your smartphone.
2. Turn Allow others to add me by ID OFF.

Preventing others from adding you by URL or QR code

If you want to prevent someone from adding you as a friend with a URL or QR code you shared with them (even if just once), you need to deactivate (regenerate) the URL/QR code.

1. Tap the Home tab > the Add friends icon > QR code > My QR code.
2. Tap Regenerate.

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The differences between hiding, blocking, and deleting LINE accounts are as follows.
Note: There is no feature to delete your account from someone else's friend list.

Related Help article:
Deleting/hiding/unhiding chats

Hiding accounts
• You can still receive chat messages from them.
• They'll appear in Hidden accounts instead of your friend list.
• You can unhide them.

Useful info

If you don't want to receive messages from an account, you'll need to block or delete them.

Blocking accounts
• You'll no longer be able to receive messages from them.
• They'll appear in Blocked accounts instead of your friend list.
• You can unblock them.

Deleting accounts
• You'll no longer be able to receive messages from them.
• They'll be deleted from your friend list.

Be advised

- After deleting an account, the changes cannot be undone or restored. Please keep this in mind if you are thinking of deleting the account of someone who you don’t have any other way to contact.
- If there is a chance that you will want to restore an account later, hide or block them instead.
- If you want to restore an account you deleted, you'll need to add them again.

Steps

Hiding/unhiding accounts

Hiding accounts

1. From the Home tab, tap Friends under Friend lists.
2. Tap and hold the name of the account that you want to hide.
3. Tap Hide > Hide.

Unhiding accounts

1. Go to the Home tab and tap Settings.
Note: Tap here to open Settings from your smartphone.
2. Tap Friends.
3. Tap Hidden accounts.
4. Tap Edit next to the account you want to unhide.
5. Tap Unhide.
Note: It may take some time for the changes to be applied.

Blocking/unblocking accounts

Blocking accounts

1. From the Home tab, tap Friends under Friend lists.
2. Tap and hold the name of the account that you want to block.
3. Tap Block > Block.

Unblocking accounts

1. Tap the Home tab > Settings.
Note: Tap here to open Settings from your smartphone.
2. Tap Friends.
3. Tap Blocked accounts.
4. Tap the account you want to unblock or Edit.
5. Tap Unblock > Unblock.
Note: It may take some time for the changes to be applied.

Deleting accounts

Deleting accounts from your friend list

1. From the Home tab, tap Friends under Friend lists.
2. Tap and hold the friend you want to delete.
3. Tap Delete > Delete.

Deleting accounts from Hidden/Blocked accounts

1. Tap the Home tab > Settings.
Note: Tap here to open Settings from your smartphone.
2. Tap Friends.
3. Tap Hidden accounts or Blocked accounts.
4. Tap the account you want to delete or Edit.
5. Tap Delete.

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Important: The contents of this article only apply to LINE accounts created with LINE versions earlier than 13.11.0 if you're not using LINE in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, or Thailand.

If a person with your mobile phone number registered in their device's contacts starts using LINE, they will automatically be added to your friend list.
Note: They will not be added automatically if you have the Auto-add friends setting turned off.

If your phone number is not in the person's contacts, you will appear under Friend recommendations. In this case, your LINE display name, profile photo, status message, and profile cover photo will be visible, but the person won't be able to see any of your other information.

The only way to remove yourself from someone else’s friend recommendations is to delete your account. Also, if you have already been added as a friend, you'll continue to appear in the person's friend list unless your account is deleted.

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LINE

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Friend safety/security

LINE

Help center

Search Help articles

Friend safety/security

How LINE uses the information in your device's contacts

How information from your device's contacts is stored on LINE's servers

Someone is impersonating me on LINE

Can other people view my Friends list?

Preventing your contacts list information from being sent to LINE

Preventing others from adding you as a friend

Hiding/blocking/deleting LINE accounts

Can someone see my profile if I have their phone number but they don’t have mine?