LINE

We have discovered an issue related to LINE VOOM, where from July 9, 2020 to April 11, 2023, LINE VOOM posts uploaded by LINE Official Accounts could unintentionally appear in the results of LINE Search, the search function of the LINE messenger app.

Through this announcement, we would like to provide a summary of this incident and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and concerns caused to users of LINE Official Accounts.

Please note that the issue that caused this incident has been resolved. 

1. Overview 

LINE VOOM posts uploaded by several verified and premium accounts (hereinafter referred to as “affected accounts”) were unintentionally viewable as search results on LINE Search, even when the “Show account in searches and recommendations” setting in a LINE Official Account was set as “Hide”.

2. Scope of occurrence

• Event occurrence period: From July 9, 2020 to April 11, 2023

• Affected accounts: LINE Official Accounts that met all of the following conditions: 

　　- Content uploaded on LINE VOOM before December 8, 2021

　　- The "Show account in searches and recommendations" in the LINE Official Account settings was not changed after December 8, 2021 and set as "Hide"

　　- Verified accounts and premium accounts

• Results:

　　- An unintended increase in the number of friends for some of the affected accounts.

　　- Possibility of users being able to access campaign information that was originally only available to users who friended the affected account or followed them on LINE VOOM.

3. Occurrence and Response time (Japan Time)

• September 27, 2021: A user first reported the incident to LINE

• September 30, 2021: Investigation started by relevant departments 

• December 8, 2021: As a result of the investigation, the cause of the issue was found to be a defect in the search processing specifications, and measures to solve the issue were then taken.

(However, the full scope of the issue was not fully understood by LINE and the defect continued to impact some LINE Official Accounts after this).

• March 1, 2023: LINE received an additional inquiry about this incident from another user, leading to the investigation being reopened

• April 11, 2023: Solved the error that caused this incident and took measures to prevent a recurrence

• May 25, 2023: Completed measures to prevent a recurrence

• June 29, 2023: Public notice published regarding this incident

4. Notice to users

We have informed the affected accounts, including those accounts that have since been closed, through their registered email addresses or messages sent by LINE Official Account on the LINE Messenger and the notification function of the LINE Official Account Manager website (both browser and app versions). The notified accounts are those LINE Official Accounts which had their LINE VOOM posts unintentionally viewable as search results on LINE Search, even when the "Show account in searches and recommendations" and the "Public web profile" setting were disabled in the LINE Official Account Manager website, based on LINE's investigative findings.

In addition, this notice will serve as a substitute for individual communications for those accounts that were possibly affected but we could not confirm the impact and those who we cannot find the email addresses due to cases such as short-term changes to settings or LINE VOOM posts being deleted.

5. Inquiries regarding this matter

For inquiries regarding this matter, please contact us via the below link:

https://contact-cc.line.me/detailId/12682/

*If you have issues with the inquiry form, please try viewing the link from a browser.

Once again, we sincerely apologize for any concern or inconvenience caused. We will continue to learn from these events and make our best efforts to prevent similar issues in the future.