LY Corporation—LY Corporation subsidiary Treenod transmitted LINE Games users' data to third party for 4 years without consent or approval
Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications issued written administrative guidance to LY Corporation on July 31, 2026 after finding that Treenod Inc., the LY subsidiary that operates the 'LINE Games' app, transmitted user identifiers (MIDs) and specified user information from users' devices to a third-party data analytics provider for ad-effectiveness analysis, without LY's internal approval and without giving users the opportunity to confirm what information would be sent, its purpose, or its recipient. The transmissions ran from May 25, 2022 to April 3, 2026, totaling approximately 8.03 million instances, about 7.52 million of them involving Japanese users. The ministry found the conduct violated Articles 27-5 and 27-12 of Japan's Telecommunications Business Act, which govern management of specified user information and external transmission notice requirements.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data Security | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| User Privacy | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.332 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.59)× agency (negligent ×0.5)
Evidence (1 signal)
Japan's MIC issues administrative guidance to LY Corporation over Treenod's unauthorized data transmission
Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications issued written administrative guidance to LY Corporation after finding its subsidiary Treenod Inc. transmitted LINE Games users' data to a third-party analytics provider for roughly four years without approval or user notice, in violation of the Telecommunications Business Act.