LINE user here. LINE – the Japanese pendant to WhatsApp, KakaoTalk, WeChat or whatever you use to chat these days. On a related note, consider switching to Signal, Telegram or something similar; but read on: LINE is also the app of choice in Taiwan, so it’s an obvious choice if you live there.
Recently, on starting the app, it asked me to accept its new personal data protection terms. With this screen (notice the second bullet at the bottom):
Agreeing to LINE sharing my personal info for marketing purposes (to third parties, aka spammers)? Maybe not. Nope. They have at least my phone number and email address, probably some more personal data about me. Not happening… Fortunately, one can tap on the green check-mark and uncheck it. Easy, one thinks. But then, when you want to proceed:
Haha, thank you for offering to uncheck an item (all 3 are checked by default, btw). But going back to the first screen and actually reading the text, one finds a link that explains how to opt out of direct marketing. OK, choose that link and you are presented with this:
Easy, huh? This must be among the worst behavior regarding customer data privacy any large-scale Internet company has ever shown. My LINE account is deleted (which I could only perform after agreeing to their terms!).
Please go ahead and share this, IMHO a company having such standards should not have the right to stay in business…
hajo 