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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[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (27 children)

So just like the majority of USAian apps out there? I think Temu fits right in. Why are people so concerned about what China is doing with their data, but not the very countries they live in or (more importantly) the dominant online surveillance presence: the USA?

Anti Commercial-AI license

[–] Kissaki@beehaw.org 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

“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.”

So just like the majority USAian app out there?

Which apps do that? Because I am certain it's NOT the majority, and very skeptical about any other apps doing that.

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

More about the part about stealing information. Most people barely look at permissions.

A flashlight app needs access to my calls, microphone, clipboard, filesystem, and network? Sure, I'll install it.

Facebook needs access to all permissions? Oh is that what the popup said when I installed it?

All Temu had to do was ask and people would grant it.

Anti Commercial-AI license

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

On modern Android, apps need to ask for each permission when they're about to use it for the first time. Not sure about Apple.

Google Play will also periodically revoque permissions to apps that haven't used them for some time.

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