Safety/Security
Account safety/security
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.
For information on deleting your account, please see here.
If your device has been lost or stolen, you should take the following steps to make sure that no one can use your LINE account.
• Transfer your LINE account or create a new one with the same registered phone number.
For information on how to transfer your account, see the Help articles below.
For information on how to create a new LINE account with the same phone number, see this Help article.
If you create a new account, any paid items, chat history, friends, groups, and data for related services (including your LINE Pay balance, manga, and games) that you had will be deleted. Once this data is deleted, it cannot be restored.
If you cannot transfer your account or create a new one, or are unable to finish the verification process with the same phone number (e.g. because your phone number changed), please contact us here.
• Contact your mobile service provider.
Be sure to contact your contracted mobile service provider and let them know that your device was lost or stolen.
If you create a new LINE account on a new device without deleting the account on your previous device, you will end up having two accounts.
Your old account cannot be deleted if you are unable to use your previous device anymore. Please ask your friends to block your old account in this case.
Please see the following article for help with blocking friends:
You'll receive a login notification whenever you log in to LINE, LINE STORE, or certain other services related to the LINE app.
If you received a notification but don't remember logging in, see the information below for your situation.
• If you can use LINE
Someone else may be trying to log in using the information registered to your LINE account. To prevent others from logging in to your account, change your email address and password.
• If you cannot use LINE
Your LINE account may have been stolen by a third party. Please contact us here.
Unauthorized account login
If your LINE account was stolen by someone logging in without your authorization, please contact us with the details using the Inquiry Form. We will delete the account to prevent any further unauthorized use.
If you had any items, we can restore them after confirming they were on your old account.
The following can be restored:
• The right to use your paid items, such as LINE stickers and themes (including those received as gifts)
• Your purchase history and Coin balance
• Your Credit purchased on LINE STORE
There have been many cases where unauthorized third parties have logged in to internet services using email addresses and passwords leaked from other services. Please note that no information registered to LINE, such as phone numbers, email addresses, and passwords, have been compromised.
If you are using the same email address and password for LINE as another service, we strongly recommend changing your password.
Reported cases of unauthorized logins
The following types of messages are often sent by a third party when an account is stolen. If you receive messages asking you to do any of the following from a friend, it is possible their account may have been stolen:
• Help me buy prepaid cards
• Help me buy iTunes cards
• I’m in trouble and need you to transfer money to my bank account
As they may change the content of their messages at any time, you should also suspect if your friend’s account has been stolen in the following cases:
• The messages don't sound like the way your friend talks
• A friend whom you have not spoken to for a long time suddenly asks you for money
• The friend's language is unnatural
Your friend’s account was stolen
If you suspect that your friend’s account may have been stolen, please contact them outside of LINE (in person, by text, by phone, or on a social network) to let them know.
Your account was stolen
If you are suddenly unable to access your account even though you did not make any changes to it, or if your friend contacts you to let you know that your account has been stolen, please see the following article:
Chat safety/security
Key fingerprints are unique encryption keys that Letter Sealing gives to each user so they can send messages to one another safely and securely.
Note: The actual keys are kept secret and will not appear in LINE chats.
If your key fingerprint matches your friend's, it means your chat is securely encrypted. To check whether your key fingerprints match, follow the steps below.
Note: Key fingerprint confirmation is optional.
1. Tap the menu icon at the top of a chat screen.
2. Tap This chat is protected with Letter Sealing at the bottom of the screen.
3. Compare the key fingerprints on your device and your friend's device.
Note: To compare key fingerprints with your friend, we recommend meeting face-to-face or using a form of communication you trust.
If "This chat is protected with Letter Sealing" doesn't appear, it means Letter Sealing is turned OFF. To turn Letter Sealing ON, follow the steps in this Help article.
When verifying your identity on the PC version of LINE, if the screen to enter the verification code for Letter Sealing does not appear on the smartphone version of LINE, please try the following:
1. Start the smartphone version of LINE.
2. Go to More > Settings > Privacy.
3. Turn Letter Sealing OFF, then turn it back ON again.
Afterwards, please refer to the following Help article and try verifying your identity once again.
To check whether a chat is protected with Letter Sealing, tap the menu icon at the top of the chat screen. If Letter Sealing is turned ON, you'll see "This chat is protected with Letter Sealing."
Note: You'll also see a lock icon at the beginning of the sentence.
If "This chat is protected with Letter Sealing" doesn't appear, see this Help article.
Letter Sealing is a feature that provides end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for chat messages. E2EE is a communication system designed so that messages saved on our servers are encrypted and cannot be read by anyone except the sender and receiver of the message.
Once the sender and receiver have both turned on Letter Sealing, they will be able to start sending messages with added security.
The following information will be encrypted:
• Text messages (not including messages sent through other services like YouTube)
• Location information
• 1-on-1 voice/video calls
Note: We plan to expand Letter Sealing’s functionality in the future.
If you use LINE for PC after turning on Letter Sealing, you'll be required to verify your identity the first time you send a message.
For information about verifying your identity to use Letter Sealing on LINE for PC, see this Help article.
Letter Sealing will be turned ON for the initial setup.
If you are using the iOS version of LINE and Letter Sealing is turned ON, you will not be able to preview messages.
We recommend keeping Letter Sealing turned ON at all times in order to protect your messages. If however, you would like to change the settings, please refer to the following steps.
Please be sure to follow the steps on the smartphone version of LINE. If you are accessing this Help article from your smartphone, tap here to move to the settings screen.
1. Tap More > Settings > Privacy.
2. Turn OFF Letter Sealing.
Friend safety/security
When users carry out the procedures listed below, LINE will access the information required in the users’ contacts list/address book to make it easy for users to find their close friends (Only the telephone numbers and mobile email addresses in your contact information will be transferred to our servers. All information will be encrypted.)
1. At the registration screen, when users select OK at the “Your Address Book will be sent to LINE’s server” dialogue.
2. When the Auto-add friends feature is switched ON in Settings or when users push the circular icon next to the Last Auto Add dialogue, and then select OK at the “Your Address Book will be sent to LINE’s server” dialogue.
LINE will add mutual contacts to your Friends list automatically. If only one of you has the other as a contact, the one who has the contact information will be added to the other's Friend Recommendations list, while the recommended person will be added to the other's Friends list.
Your own phone number, and other information obtained from your contacts list/address book (phone numbers and email addresses) will not be disclosed and will be protected as follows:
1. 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.
2. If you agree to allow LINE to find your friends, the telephone numbers and mobile email addresses in your contacts list/address book will be sent to our servers.
At this time, the required contact information will be encrypted and securely transferred to our server.
3. We use encrypted text when comparing your information with existing user information.
Please visit the following web page for more detailed information on our privacy policy:
http://terms.line.me/line_rules/
1. At the registration screen, when users select OK at the “Your Address Book will be sent to LINE’s server” dialogue.
2. When the Auto-add friends feature is switched ON in Settings or when users push the circular icon next to the Last Auto Add dialogue, and then select OK at the “Your Address Book will be sent to LINE’s server” dialogue.
LINE will add mutual contacts to your Friends list automatically. If only one of you has the other as a contact, the one who has the contact information will be added to the other's Friend Recommendations list, while the recommended person will be added to the other's Friends list.
Your own phone number, and other information obtained from your contacts list/address book (phone numbers and email addresses) will not be disclosed and will be protected as follows:
1. 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.
2. If you agree to allow LINE to find your friends, the telephone numbers and mobile email addresses in your contacts list/address book will be sent to our servers.
At this time, the required contact information will be encrypted and securely transferred to our server.
3. We use encrypted text when comparing your information with existing user information.
Please visit the following web page for more detailed information on our privacy policy:
http://terms.line.me/line_rules/
When you agree to allow LINE to find your friends, the information sent to our servers from your contact list (phone numbers and mobile email addresses) will be encrypted and securely stored on our servers. For more information on our privacy policy, please click on the link below.
http://terms.line.me/line_rules/
http://terms.line.me/line_rules/
If users select to send their phonebook data to LINE’s servers upon registering to LINE, phone numbers in their phone books will be used to search for their friends who are LINE users.
If we find those users, they will appear in the user's [Friends] list under the names registered in the user's phonebook.
Therefore if you have stopped using your number and someone else obtains it, a third party may be registered on your friends' [Friends] list under your name.
Please ensure that your friends do not have you registered under multiple phone numbers/mobile email addresses within their phonebook, and also check that they have not saved you under any details which are out of date such as previous phone numbers.
If we find those users, they will appear in the user's [Friends] list under the names registered in the user's phonebook.
Therefore if you have stopped using your number and someone else obtains it, a third party may be registered on your friends' [Friends] list under your name.
Please ensure that your friends do not have you registered under multiple phone numbers/mobile email addresses within their phonebook, and also check that they have not saved you under any details which are out of date such as previous phone numbers.
If you do not want to be automatically added as a friend by someone who has your phone number, please follow the steps below.
Note: These steps will not affect existing friends.
1. Go to More > Settings.
2. Tap Friends.
3. Turn OFF Allow Others to Add.
To open the Settings menu from your smartphone, tap here.
To block accounts that appear in your friend recommendations:
1. Tap the Home/Friends tab > your friend list > Friend recommendations.
2. Tap and hold the name of the account that you want to block.
3. Tap Block.
Note: It may take some time for the changes to be applied.
When you block an account on LINE:
• You'll no longer be able to receive chat messages or voice/video calls from that account.
• It will appear in Blocked users instead of your friend list.
Blocking an account doesn't completely remove it as a friend or friend recommendation. If you'd like to do so, see this Help article.
To block an account:
1. Tap the Home/Friends tab > your friend list.
2. Tap and hold the name of the account that you want to block.
3. Tap Block > Block.
To unblock an account:
1. Tap the Home/Friends tab > Settings.
Note: Tap here to open Settings from your smartphone.
2. Tap Friends.
3. Tap Blocked users.
4. Tap Edit next to the account you want to unblock.
5. Tap Unblock.
Note: It may take some time for the changes to be applied.
Unlike hiding or blocking, deleting an account from your friend list cannot be undone. 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.
To delete an account:
1. Tap the Home/Friends tab > Settings.
2. Tap Friends.
3. Tap Hidden users or Blocked users.
4. Tap Edit next to the account you want to delete.
5. Tap Delete.
To open the Settings menu from your smartphone, tap here.
Abuse
Bullying/harassment on LINE
If you are experiencing trouble due to harassment or other illegal activities, please first discuss the matter with your family and close friends.
Chat history and other information of LINE users is considered private information and protected with the highest level of security possible, in addition to being protected by privacy laws which guarantee the right to secrecy of communication.
In order to guarantee that users can freely communicate, we are not able to view chat content. Please understand that for this reason, we cannot verify chat history, and therefore are unable to take any action in regards to it.
Please refer to the following link for help preventing harassment in chat messages or if you were added as a friend by someone you do not know.
If you are having Unicode-related issues, such as with special characters and symbols, please refer to the Help page below.
If you're experiencing issues caused by Unicode (e.g. special characters or symbols), you may be able to resolve them by using LINE for PC.
Please refer to the Help article below if you haven't used LINE for PC before.
If you can use LINE for PC, please try the troubleshooting tips below.
For issues in 1-on-1 chats
Delete the chat history of chat rooms that have Unicode in them:
1. From the Chat list, right-click on the relevant chat.
2. Click Delete.
For issues with group invitations
Decline the group invitation:
1. From the Group invitations list, right-click on the relevant group.
2. Click Decline.
For issues with group chats
Leave the group:
1. From your friend list, right-click on the relevant group.
2. Click Leave group.
For issues with your Friends list
Change your friend's display name:
1. From your friend list, right-click on the relevant friend(s).
2. Click Change friend’s name.
3. Click the name that appears, then edit and save it.
For issues with Timeline
Block your friend:
1. From your friend list, right-click on the relevant friend(s).
2. Click Block.
If you receive invitations from unknown chats or groups, you can report them by following the steps below.
Note: Group or chat members won't be notified if you report them.
1. Open the chat you want to report.
2. Tap Report.
3. Select your reason for making the report, then tap Agree & send.
If the content you reported violates our terms and conditions, we will take appropriate action.
Impersonated accounts
If a phone number saved in your device’s contacts is registered to LINE, the account created with the phone number will automatically be added as a friend on your friends list.
If your name appears on your friends list, you may have saved the wrong information in your contacts. Please check your device’s contacts list to make sure the phone number saved under your name is accurate.
If a phone number that you are no longer using is saved under your name in your contacts and another user who acquired the phone number after you registered to LINE using the number, the account will appear in your friends list under your name.
If you enable auto adding of friends from your device’s contacts, the names that they are saved under in your device’s contacts will be shown.
In the following cases, the friend that you see on your LINE friends list may be a different person from who you think they are.
- The owner of the phone number has changed
- You have multiple phone numbers saved under the same person’s name in your contacts
- The wrong phone number is registered in your contacts
Please check if your friend's phone number is up to date and accurate, and that you do not have multiple phone numbers saved for the same friend.
In the following cases, the friend that you see on your LINE friends list may be a different person from who you think they are.
- The owner of the phone number has changed
- You have multiple phone numbers saved under the same person’s name in your contacts
- The wrong phone number is registered in your contacts
Please check if your friend's phone number is up to date and accurate, and that you do not have multiple phone numbers saved for the same friend.
If you receive any LINE messages claiming to be from the LINE team, please see the following article.
Preventing messages from strangers
If you receive email spam claiming to be from the LINE team, please configure your spam filters to block them.
Note: If you're not sure how to configure these settings, be sure to contact your email service provider.
The LINE team will only contact you from the following domains:
@accept.line.me
@naver.jp
@line.me
@noti.naver.jp
@linecorp.com
Emails claiming to be the LINE team from domains other than those mentioned above are fraudulent.
We treat information acquired by our company with the highest security. We are not sure why you received spam messages; however, please be assured that your personal information has NOT been leaked from LINE.
Spam chat messages/emails
If you receive any LINE messages claiming to be from the LINE team, please see the following article.
Preventing messages from strangers
If you receive email spam claiming to be from the LINE team, please configure your spam filters to block them.
Note: If you're not sure how to configure these settings, be sure to contact your email service provider.
The LINE team will only contact you from the following domains:
@accept.line.me
@naver.jp
@line.me
@noti.naver.jp
@linecorp.com
Emails claiming to be the LINE team from domains other than those mentioned above are fraudulent.
We treat information acquired by our company with the highest security. We are not sure why you received spam messages; however, please be assured that your personal information has NOT been leaked from LINE.
If you receive spam messages on LINE, please see the following article.
Chat Security
If you receive spam on your email address registered with LINE, please configure your spam filters to block them. Please inquire with your email service provider about how to do this.
While we are unsure why you might have received the spam email, please be assured that no personal information has been leaked from LINE. We place the utmost importance on the security of the information acquired by our company.
Chat Security
If you receive spam on your email address registered with LINE, please configure your spam filters to block them. Please inquire with your email service provider about how to do this.
While we are unsure why you might have received the spam email, please be assured that no personal information has been leaked from LINE. We place the utmost importance on the security of the information acquired by our company.
Rights infringement
Unfortunately, we can only respond to claims concerning rights infringement if the victim of the infringement contacts us personally.
If your inquiry is not about the infringement of your own rights, we will not be able to help you. Thank you for understanding.
Can you still view the infringing content inside the LINE app?
If your inquiry is not about the infringement of your own rights, we will not be able to help you. Thank you for understanding.
Can you still view the infringing content inside the LINE app?
Report harassment
You can report content in chat rooms or on Timeline. For more information, please see the following articles:
I found something inappropriate on Timeline
We will check any reported content for activity that violates the LINE Terms and Conditions of Use, then take the appropriate action if any is found.
Note: Please understand that we cannot give details or the results of our investigation. This is in order to protect the privacy of our users.