Temu—the Chinese shopping app that has rapidly grown so popular in the US that even Amazon is reportedly trying to copy it—is “dangerous malware” that’s secretly monetizing a broad swath of unauthorized user data, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin alleged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Griffin cited research and media reports exposing Temu’s allegedly nefarious design, which “purposely” allows Temu to “gain unrestricted access to a user’s phone operating system, including, but not limited to, a user’s camera, specific location, contacts, text messages, documents, and other applications.”

“Temu is designed to make this expansive access undetected, even by sophisticated users,” Griffin’s complaint said. “Once installed, Temu can recompile itself and change properties, including overriding the data privacy settings users believe they have in place.”

  • Pat_Riot@lemmy.today
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    5 months ago

    Or maybe, just maybe, yet another American company is upset that a Chinese company is beating them at their own game.

  • Possibly linux
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    5 months ago

    I personally wouldn’t use Temu as it is as sketchy as a piece of paper.

    With that being said, I’m not sure how Temu is worse than every other company including Amazon and Walmart.