Chinese shopping app Temu could be harvesting phone users' data according to report (www.thisismoney.co.uk)

submitted 11 months ago by Emperor@feddit.uk to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A new ultra-cheap Chinese shopping app taking Britain by storm could be illegally harvesting the data of phone users, claims a report.

Temu, pronounced tee-moo, offers shoppers cut-price products shipped directly from Chinese factories. It launched in the UK in April and has surged in popularity, becoming the most-downloaded app on Google's Play Store following similar success in the US.

Distinguished by its bright orange logo, Temu is thought to have more than nine million users in the UK who have been drawn in by its ultra-low prices and free delivery.

...

But alarm bells are ringing among analysts and observers of Chinese companies.

This month, financial analyst Siegfried Eggert, the boss of US firm Grizzly Research, published a report claiming Temu was one of the 'most dangerous' popular apps, alleging it contained 'aggressive' programmes designed to harvest data.

Eggert also accused Temu's owner, Chinese e-commerce giant PDD, of 'intentionally' hiding the software within the app.

'We Believe Temu is the most dangerous app in wide circulation,' the report said.

top 9 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[-] fishos@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago

Anecdotal, but after I installed temu, someone repeatedly tried to access my Facebook account. Every hour I'd get a password reset request. Had them happening for 3 days straight. Thought about what I'd recently installed and it was only Temu. Uninstalled and the attempts stopped immediately.

[-] Mandy@sh.itjust.works 14 points 11 months ago

A Chinese app exists to mostly harvest data? Noooo, really?

Imagine my shock

[-] Rin@lemm.ee 12 points 11 months ago

Chinese app: illegally harvests data

Me:

[-] Sdot@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

I'm so sick of seeing ads for this business. I've no interest in shopping there, it's not relevant to anything I would have searched or used before... but there it is, everywhere. Screams of cheap crap and scams.

[-] smeg@feddit.uk 9 points 11 months ago

Never install an app when you could use a web page. If you really must install something you know might be dodgy then put it in a work profile or on an old phone with no personal data. Most people just can't be arsed, but the basic steps to protect your security and privacy online are pretty simple.

[-] Emperor@feddit.uk 8 points 11 months ago

They were talking about it on the radio today and everyone seems to have gone Temu mad, helped by their unsustainable business model making everything wildly cheap (which I must admit is making my intrigued).

Leaving aside privacy concerns and the fact that all the spinning roulette wheel nonsense makes it look dodgy (which tries very hard to drive you to us the app, which is where the privacy concerns come in - coincidence?), as well as the allegations of slave labour, the thing that puts me off is that everything in their ads looks like some kind of sexual device.

[-] i_am_not_a_robot@feddit.uk 4 points 11 months ago

Same as Wish - everything they advertise is "wtf is that thing". Probably designed to make you click and look. They've got you at that point.

[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 3 points 11 months ago

helped by their unsustainable business model making everything wildly cheap (which I must admit is making my intrigued).

It's a whole heap of utter crap though. Actually depressing to browse through.

[-] CookieJarObserver@sh.itjust.works 6 points 11 months ago

*is

Its a Chinese app, it is doing that.

this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023

39 points (100.0% liked)

United Kingdom

4039 readers

238 users here now

General community for news/discussion in the UK.

Less serious posts should go in !casualuk@feddit.uk or !andfinally@feddit.uk
More serious politics should go in !uk_politics@feddit.uk.

Try not to spam the same link to multiple feddit.uk communities.
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric news, and should be either a link to a reputable source, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread.

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

tom@feddit.uk

GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk