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104

Shopping app Temu is “dangerous malware,” spying on your texts, U.S. lawsuit claims (arstechnica.com)

submitted 4 months ago by tardigrada@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org

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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."

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[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 49 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Believe it or not, I can be concerned about both.

The difference is, the place where I live has some data privacy regulations which actually get enforced, and I have some legal recourse against organizations which mishandle my data. China does not have such regulations and I do not have any recourse against organizations based there, so my risk from them is significantly higher.

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 9 points 4 months ago

Believe it or not, I can be concerned about both.

Yes you can, most people aren't. In real life, by far the most common response I've gotten when talking about privacy is 😴 . My colleagues in tech will hotly debate China's surveillance, but happy use face ID on their iPhone, upload their entire life to Google or iCloud (including recordings of therapy sessions), send their blood into do a heritage check, nearly exclusively use Amazon for shopping, have an Amazon Ring camera at their door, and so much more.

You are the minority.

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