TEMU WARNING

[frozencarlotta]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65990529?fbclid=IwAR3IjNnvlU7S_izagSEZyz5Tmo-ZSR3p6NwN-cVp7JbW_Fav9vnKv3I2sTU

and this was on social media, Its a little 'facebook warning' type

Radio talk show hostess, Kim Komando, did some digging about TEMU and this is what she found!
Seemingly overnight, everyone’s talking about Temu (pronounced “tee-moo”), an online shopping app that boasts deals that seem too good to be true, like $17 wireless earbuds, $1 “gold” necklaces and $23 wedding dresses.
Over 50 million Americans have downloaded Temu since it launched state-side in September 2022, after it gained traction with expensive Super Bowl ads promising to let you “shop like a billionaire.”
Today, Temu is the most popular shopping app in the U.S. behind Amazon. But most of us don’t know much about the app’s true origins. Reader Daniel Mayer asked an important question, “Is [Temu] something we should be concerned about?”
So, I did some digging. And as it turns out, yes, you absolutely should be. Here’s what I found:
Where did Temu come from?
This isn’t some fly-by-night operation. Temu is based in Boston, Massachusetts, by PDD Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: PDD). PDD is headquartered in Shanghai, China.
PDD also owns the e-commerce platform Pinduoduo headquartered in — you guessed it — China. So, Temu is a Communist China-based app and site.

What you need to know before using Temu
First, you’re buying goods directly from manufacturers in China and other parts of the world. That’s why shipping times are often 12 days or longer. The prices are low because the goods are cheap. The pictures of what you see advertised may not be what you actually get.
Temu’s BBB rating is 2.21/5. Reviews at TrustPilot are interesting, with 38% 5-star reviews and 41% 1-star reviews.
But that’s not the worst of it.

Temu is downright dangerous.

The app is a clever, pervasive digital stalker. As you shop, Temu monitors your activity on other apps, tracks your notifications and location and changes settings.
It gets worse. Temu gains full access to all your contacts, calendars and photo albums, plus all your social media accounts, chats and texts. In other words, literally everything on your phone.
No shopping app needs this much control, especially one tied to Communist China. If you’re using Temu, delete the app from your phone ASAP.
On iPhone, Long-press an app, then tap Remove App > Delete App. Tap Delete to confirm.
On Android, touch and hold an app, then tap Remove App > Delete App > Delete.
Pro tip: If you downloaded Temu, to be safe from Chinese spies, you really need to do a full factory reset.
But wait, there’s more! Temu’s sister app was removed from Google Play because of malware.

Do not buy from this company, or use their app

Why do the women on the adverts have their faces blurred?

There are goods being sold on temu that are identical to goods being sold on Amazon. The only difference is the price. Amazon being about 400% higher.

And again on etsy I've noticed things being resold as handmade which are obviously from temu or other sites like it.

Pretty much everything we own or wear is made by slave labour. Even on "green" sites you have to be careful as often their garments are still produced unethically but they make a donation to offset their or your guilt.

Shopping up makes no difference either as luxury brands source from the same factories.

Ethical shopping in my mind is a myth - it's just the creation of a new brand of consumerism.

I would be shocked if most apps we download do not already have access to this information. It's just that temu is in the spotlight as it showcases what "we" as an "affluent" society are meant to stand against. But the creation of goods in an ethical and fairly paid way is gone for the most part. Cars are made of parts produced in slum factories, mobiles are the same. Everything we rely on in life is created for us by people who have very little.

My thoughts. I have never and will never buy from them.

Sounds like American scaremongering more than anything unusual. Not that I’d ever buy their shite.

Surely people know these kind of sites are Chinese?

And if you’re shocked, you’d be quite disappointed when you realise where 99% of the stuff on Amazon comes from…

🤣

Imagine being tracked all the time by these apps…oh wait, the phone in your pocket already does that.

PMSL at 'communist china' & 'Chinese spies'.

Is your tin hat fully on OP.

If people are so thick you didn't know this is a Chinese site then god help the human race. Also a lot of stuff you buy in 'normal' stores is Chinese too, you must live under a rock not to know that.

Also you are promised a refund if your delivery takes over 5 working days... it absoloutly does not take 12 days to deliver.

Its the exact same companies that are on Amazon by the way.

I would be far more weary of Amazon too. I dont have an account and they don't have my details apparently but when DH missed a payment they some how took money out of MY bank account and our finances are not shared and we have different surname.

Amazons the only company I have ever had issues with.

‘Communist’ China <snigger>

Those darn Commies. As previous pp said, it sounds like the McCarthy witch-hunts.

The issue is more the data farming I think than the cheap shit knock off

Don't all the shopping apps and social media companies do this ?

£17 wireless earbuds is a normal price. There are some for £20 in Tesco.

I mean I am sure much of what you are saying is true but why call China "communist china"? did you time travel from the cold War era perchance?

I wouldn't buy from them personally. Not because it's a Chinese site but because my dd works for a bank and she says a large number of the calls she takes at the moment are from people who have ordered from there, not received their goods and been unable to obtain a refund.

Just cutting out the middle man mark ups that also sell you cheap sh*t.

That article is propaganda because we are buddying up with usa against russia and China

I think anyone stupid enough to buy from Temu deserves to be data farmed.

Company owned by China shock!

In other news bear shits in wood.

Despite the way the OP has formatted the opening post, that isn't the content of the linked article.

@frozencarlotta What's the source for the Facebook copy and paste?

souce was facebook

the lady mentioned in there is
https://www.facebook.com/kimkomando

and
https://www.komando.com/security-privacy/delete-temu/883294/

(added second link)

Shien is the same. Some peeps don't give a shiny shit about ethics just because it's cheap.

They should rename it “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Ethical!”

I use Temu and SHEIN regularly, don’t pay via my bank card/account so no risk there and as far as data mining goes, I really don’t care if companies want to use my data, I accept data requests for every app I download, every account I make…etc. If you have an email account, access any website, including Mumsnet, your information is being collected.

It's intellectually and morally lazy to decide that all retailers are equally unethical and to therefore not bother with avoiding even the most transparently bad ones. An easy cop out and just not true.

People say the same thing about trying to be environmentally friendly, trying to vote for the right politicians, trying to support the right charities etc. Just be honest - you feel overwhelmed by some of the problems in the world so you've checked out of taking responsibility for your contribution. To an extent that's very understandable and I expect nearly everybody does this on at least one issue or another. There's no need to excuse yourself and in doing so discourage others, by falsely stating that it's pointless to make an effort. Own it.

The entire industry is bad yes, but there are definitely worse agents than others. It's very easy to find out this kind of information - if you Google "which shops are ethical" there are quite literally dozens of articles and websites (ethical consumer, moral fibres, the good shopping guide etc there are quite literally page after page of such comparison sites) which give different retailers a rank/score and can give an easy to understand overview of what determines these scores. No, they're probably not perfect. There probably isn't time to do exhaustive research. Sometimes the information you find will be wrong. But you can literally guarantee that if you shop on a website like Temu, at those prices, you are supporting slavery. Trying not to support slavery is likely to produce better results than not trying at all.

If you don't want to do even 5 minutes of research into which retailers support slavery, and prefer not to think about it - it's a simple truth that buying less is a fairly effortless way way to improve the environmental and social consequences of your consumerism, even if you don't do any research into how and where products are made. Temu does not encourage buying less. It entices consumers to buy as much cheap tat as possible, as do sites like Boohoo, Shein etc. It's so easy not to support this trend. Get your dopamine somewhere else. Give up compulsive shopping. Scrolling through Facebook and then impulsively purchasing something you don't need because it is extremely cheap is not a method for saving money.

People don't care if it's knock off, don't care if it's crap tat, don't care if it's made with banned chemicals and don't care if they try to harvest their data.

As long as it's cheap.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12336839/amp/temu-legitimate-online-shopping-app-safe-website-shein-court.html

'Temu is owned by Pinduoduo Inc., a popular e-commerce site in China. It launched in the US in September 2022 with an advertising campaign which included a $45 billion Superbowl ad.'

I googled and the ad cost around $14 million!

🤣 very good. You win the Internet for today.

To me it seems to be a common trope to be afraid of communists. Do these people really belive the capitalist pigs at Facebook/amazon et all aren't data farming

This