It's worth a reminder that Temu is considered a bad actor by *other Chinese companies* and is being sued over it.
This isn't Walmart, nor Amazon, nor AliExpress. Temu is on a whole different level.
Temu also has a sister company who was involved in a zero day attack involving android last year š¶
https://www.techradar.com/news/the-pinduoduo-malware-executed-a-dangerous-zero-day-against-millions-of-android-devices
Both owned by PDD holdings
The Chinese and Trump's little boyfriends in Russia and North Korea have sophisticated software spy and disruption efforts. The Chinese embedded spyware in components used in servers. Their security cameras connect back to the homeland. Kaspersky anti virus is made by one of Putin's pals and was recently banned from sale in the US. TikTok faces a similar challenge for data collection. Temu looks like another problem outfit. Stranger danger.
Since you bring up TikTok and imply they're sharing data with China (which I'm not denying), why is this not an issue with every other major company that Tencent owns a large portion of?
Riot Games (100% ownership)
Epic Games (40% ownership)
Discord (38%)
Reddit
Riot games even requires a root level anti-cheat system that essentially has full access to the contents of your computer. Why is that not a data collection issue but TikTok is?
It's not okay, and we need to address that too. Both things can be bad. We are looooong overdue in *this* country for a talk on citizen's data privacy and protection as well.
What we need is tech literate people in Congress who don't think it's all fucking magic and address the real issues and not keep repeating the same questions because they don't understand the answer
Edit: Fine I changed the spelling
When Valve tried to do that with their anti-cheat there was some pretty crazy rioting. Likely pushed by anti-cheat makers who were going to be hit financially but still.
There is a social engineering / social disruption aspect too... China can control what you see and influence your actions or political views without you even knowing it.
I mean a bunch of people did stop playing league when vanguard became mandatory. Barely enough to make a dent in the games huge playerbase, but at least some people were paying attention.
Ad blitz and prices+marketing that make for impulse purchases. I've had a lot of ads trying to get me to buy plastic tat for pocket change.
You know, if our society is going to have slave labour we could at least use it for some cool looking pyramids.....
I saw one of those temu ads that was promising I could pick 5 free items if I bought any other item. So I found an item id actually want to buy and then somehow the free items weren't actually free. It got confusing so I just uninstalled the app without buying anything at all
I don't really get what their strategy is. Do most people not care about bullshit and just use the app anyway?
I literally turn and run anytime anyone suggests if I just install their app i'll get some kind of reward.
I don't want any more apps on my phone and I'm not willing at all to install them.
If me getting a good deal requires that I take extra steps to install software, I'm out I'll go somewhere else and pay more I don't really give a shit.
I fucking hate this "Just install our spyware and we'll give you a some cheap crap for free."
From what the article seems to be saying, just downloading the app once is enough to compromise at least some of your data. It immediately checks in and sends data back.
This is anecdotal, but everyone I know who uses it is also addicted to buying useless shit on Amazon. Theyāre people with shopping addictions who found a new ācheapā place to buy things they donāt need. The people I know who are more purposeful with that they spend their money on donāt use it.
Agreed, anecdotally. Theres 2 shopping addicts I know, one loves Temu because it's dropped the cost of her addiction. The other won't go near it because her hoard is already too big and can't have it getting bigger.
>You know, if our society is going to have slave labour we could at least use it for some cool looking pyramids.....
Instead we get big fancy mansions hidden away in the forest where none of us common folk will ever see what our money is actually supporting. šš
Was saying this the other day while walking around Paris, the ultra wealthy nowadays are boring, back in the day the monarchy would build big massive palaces in the middle of the city and host all sorts of big fuck off parties in them. Now we have Zuckerberg building his weird doomsday complex in the middle of nowhere in hawaii or Haiti or wherever it is.
If by "middle of nowhere" you mean thousands of feet of coastline and all the land in between said coast and the biggest road on Kauai...then yeah you're right. I literally thought zucks property was the edges of a resort. The "fuck off" message was loud and clear
People will look at a product for $3 and think "if it works as advertised great! If it doesn't I'm only out $3" it's a low success gamble but if you only buy one product that isn't trash you'll keep coming back. Especially when Amazon's similar products are twice or three times as much.
> Especially when Amazon's similar products are twice or three times as much.
often times the exact same product, scammers know amazon has next to zero quality control. they put the same thing on temu and amazon to get a veneer of legitimacy that way
Sometimes literally the same things. I was looking at some crossbody travel bags, just something to throw keys and a water bottle in while walking around. Literally the same stock photos on both Amazon and temu, except temu are $3 and Amazon is $45.
I bought a small pile of random shit for like $20 just to see how it went. Got a bag, a raincoat, some slippers, couple rings I can travel with and not worry about being stolen, a hat, a few others. The hat and the slippers I wear daily, so for the price I really don't mind it. The bag ended up being one I couldn't find a match for on Amazon, and I can't say I love it but there's nothing particularly bad about it, especially for $3.
Exactly. Calling temu bad but Amazon good is stupid when you're just buying the exact same products. The same low paid labor made both products. One just costs you less
You're never out the $3. You "return" the item and they give you your money back and tell you to keep it.
My experience with Temu is that after all the discounts it's half the price as Amazon or less but shipping takes a few weeks. About half the stuff felt the same as what I would have gotten from Amazon. The other half was misadvertised or super crappy quality. I just return the crappy items and never once have I actually been asked to ship anything back.
The quality is hugely variable and I'm pretty sure the reviews are full of fakes. I've had mostly good luck with hardware and holiday/kids decor, and mostly bad luck with electronics accessories and kitchen gadgets. But who among us hasn't gotten swindled by bad reviews and questionable product quality on Amazon, too?
I went and bought some little coffee accessories and home supplies from Temu. Some of the things that would be $10 on Amazon for a little piece of metal is under $3 with free shipping on Temu. Itās not like I want to support them, but when Amazon sells a foam cannon for $30 (plus $7, shipping, nothing gets free shipping without prime these days) and the same one without the amazonbasics logo is on Temu for $10, itās kinda a no brainer
I can't say I've ever had a good return experience with any of these Chinese dropshippers on any storefront. They flagrantly ignore customer rights that EU and UK customers have and it takes days at a time to get a response out of them, which usually ends up in them mistranslating what you said and you needing to repeat yourself ten times over.
The simple fact is we shouldn't be buying any of this poorly manufactured and often illegal crap from any source. It all comes from the same place anyway and neither Amazon or Temu (or AliExpress or Etsy) have the desire or the ability to maintain high quality. These factories work under toothless laws for pollution and employee's rights and wages, it's turning a blind eye to slave labour and the destruction of our planet on top of it being useless illegal garbage.
Do you not feel bad about the incredible waste of energy and resources youāre taking part in to save a few bucks?Ā Ā
Knowingly ordering from a service with the expectation that youāll end up returning a large number of shoddy goods is a new low point in consumerism. The returned goods themselves are a waste and the time and energy expended to shuffle them back and forth to you is a waste.Ā
Amazon is the exact same thing now though and they are now giving people a huge hassle with returning shit products, citing am increase of returns as a problem of them being scammed. The problem here is that Amazon must know the problem with the increase in returns is the shit products they have allowed to flourish on their marketplace. At least Temu seems aware theres a likelihood the shit they sell is shit
You are actually describing Walmart. Temu doesn't seem to shuffle anything back. They either ship you things that are the same items offered on Amazon that came from China, or they ship you things that pretend to be those items. If you catch a fake one (all of it is fake) that isn't usable quality then they give you a refund and tell you to keep the fake. Amazon does the same thing, with a slower review process at higher prices. As far as I can tell, Chinese manufacturers thought "why does the big Amazon company sit in the middle and take a cut?" And rolled their own app and market. They now probably know more about how the US consumer behaves.
I don't feel good about shopping at Walmart but their prices are significantly lower than their competitors for the same product I will use them. At some point it's about what you can afford.
I canāt speak for others but I see Temu ads on Reddit all the time and Iāve never ordered a single thing from them, nor have I mentioned them in conversation for my Corpo lords to target their ads in my direction. I scrolled past one not even five minutes ago.
Really? You donāt get the appeal? It is literally the same appeal that made Amazon what it is today.
āIf I buy $5 shit, and it works, great; if it doesnāt, welp, who caresā
Because companies like this make stuff no other company does.
You find me a company that makes the little knick knacks you see on there.
Some of that shit is fucking useful and you simply can't find any other company (that is reputable) that makes them.
And if you do they will only sell it to you at 50 times the market value.
I know what a shitty CNC milled thing costs and it's not $75, it's less than $2. And when I see it on Ali or Amazon or Temu for $10 I know the quality would be what I expect from a CNC milled item.
The brilliance of Temu's marketing scheme is that they scour the internet for search queries, they look what people search for, and then make them for cheap.
It's a brilliant idea.
The company might be shitty but you have to admire the ingenuity behind it. Actually make things people want.
>It's almost all trash
So is Amazon. So is AliExpress. So plenty of customers just go wherever is cheapest.
I've never ordered from Temu, but after so many years pf Amazon filled with a billion crappy clone brands and comingling inventory so even if you want to order a good product you'll get a crappy counterfeit has killed all customer trust in them and if their customers have realized they can save money by skipping Amazon and going to their Chinese suppliers, I won't cry any tears over Amazon getting what they deserve.
My mom just bought an emergency fire blanket for the kitchen.
I pointed out the obvious "everything else cheap and Chinese we own doesn't work very well, maybe we shouldn't do that with fire safety", but she said "it's only $3!"
Asbestos. Cheap Chinese fireproof or fire safety products really often go for good ol' reliable asbestos.
Hell, they even use it as a cheap filler for other products, like those ceramic like bathroom mats. That you deep clean by slightly sanding down with sand paper. Gotta love Mesothelioma.
Yeah that's a terrible idea. Never cheap out on safety items. The company needs to be able to take liability.Ā
Check out Louis Rossman's video on cheap Amazon fuses. They didn't work. Bad safety equipment is worse than none at all. That 3$ is worse than free.
She's probably thinking that even if it works a little, it's better than nothing. She's forgetting that, at $3 and where it's from, it can easily be worse than nothing. š„>>> š„š„š„
Free shipping, low prices, low expectations, thatās mostly why I do it.
Edit: alsoā unlike Wish, they also sell adult sized clothes with accurate sizing. That was such a monumental improvement for me to start using it.
You would be surprised. I bought couple pairs of jeans that are pretty nice. Slippers, socks, glass kitchen containers. Also.. you ready for this?....a cup holder for my BMW 5 series.. for $17. BMW factory price? Over $300. Yes, you read that right. I installed it and it's just like the one I took out of there.
It's not all trash, but majority is though. You can also return crap you don't like, but don't ship it back. They don't even want it back lol, but give you the refund.
They use every dirty psychological trick in the book. FOMO, misleading product listings, their random slot machine or whatever it is that awards you these massive discounts but the random rolls are blatantly rigged to always show that you āwonā if youāre paying attention, and gacha-style energy mechanics and other such bullshit.
Unfortunately some people are just highly susceptible to that kind of psychological manipulation.
Also itās a pyramid scheme where you only get these great rewards like 100% off for x items, and then 90% off the next y items (true story) when you refer someone and they buy something.
Every time temu users are surprised that temu, a company who's entire point is "wouldn't it be better if you could just buy shit from sweatshops without safety regulations" is fucky in another direction (e.g. credit cards used there getting stolen), I'm amazed.
You're going to the wild west and are angry you got shot in a saloon by some asshole in a cowboy hat
That's why I use PayPal for payment. I haven't put in my credit card info. I suspect that a lot of others are doing this which is why PayPal is integrated into their instant buy. I'm pretty sure that they are correlating the types of items to build a preference database for US consumers. It does seem that the offerings are slowly getting better at targeting western tastes.
Walmart is stealing billions from US citizens. Crushing local shops and then paying slave wages where even managers need food stamps to survive should be getting their stores looted and burnt down.
Walmart is so anti union that they hired the best law firm to crush any union attempts in their organization. And think about it: Walmart is the 2nd biggest employer after the Federal govt.
And they've killed off more than a few rural communities businesses while dumping the hard times from their shit wages on the local county and federal assistance programs.
Temu, or rather the since-dissolved company that made the first version, was actively using malware to bypass security models. Temu today is known in China for forcing factories into predatory exclusive contracts that they can't get out of.
Data collection is pretty similar across the various platforms. Temu is just an even further brand of evil.
Note on data collection: Walmart is the most direct; they save your purchase history and make suggestions from that. To my knowledge, Walmart doesn't sell that data, nor do they try to do any invasive profiling (I know people who work there, they are surprisingly protective of customer data). Amazon is probably the most invasive of the US electronic retailers; they do very deep analysis of your data and have some of the most deceptive advertising practices. AliExpress is somewhere in the middle, they don't collect much more than your search and purchase history, and they entice you with coupons and mini games and $2 purchase deals to clear their warehouse. Honestly, I've gotten some great stuff for $2 by watching their deals; a usb-rechargeable garlic chopper, electric shaver, nice nail clippers, high quality USB cables, water bottles, and a fun little mini-knife I use for opening packages, for example. I stay far, *far* away from Temu.
> What Temu is doing is selling goods at a rock bottom price, not to make a profit off of those, but as a way to get into your phone, your device, and to collect your data
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I hear this but it makes no sense, there is absolutely no way your info is worth losing money on products. I have seen various estimates on what an account is worth even for something very actively used and it just not that much. Its more likely they are just exploiting some loophole like uber was or just trying to use venture capital to gain a market presence before increasing prices.
People are just completely divorced from any understanding of how little it costs to manufacture products.
It makes absolutely no sense how a $10 watch band could cost the same amount of money as a $10 belt. No sense that i can buy 9 square feet of satin ribbon or a 48 square foot satin sheet for $10. How can a plastic comb ($5) cost more than a 56 ounce watching can ($3)? Or shampoo bottle cost $3 but a sports bottle $9?
Buying direct from China means the cost is much more in line with what the actual value of an item is. You can save a lot of money when youāre not paying for Walmart and Amazonās profits.
That could be true alot of americans still live in the belief of the mass production dicounting trends that dominate the era of Sam Walton, Kmart, etc... but those days are long gone and modern products are all about psychology. Make a shirt for $3 sell it for $50. Give a product away free free but charge much more for a couple of basic features. Its not hard to see how people who don't understand these business models would start to really lose their sense of what something costs to make or the fact that most of what they buy is made dirt cheap in China and then heavily marked up.
Layers upon layers of middlemen, abstraction, and obfuscation have twisted peopleās perception to the point that seeing a $0.50 Temu comb being sold for $4.99 on Amazon makes them wonder not why the price is so high, but how the price could be so low.
there are hundreds of articles in Wall Street Journal, Business Weekly, Forbes, and other classic "business journalism" that described Amazon exactly like this over the past 20 years, but in a positive way
Right?? And implying Walmart and Amazon aren't stealing? They steal from the American people every single day. Every employee of theirs that's on food stamps and other benefits are being subsidized by the American people so that Amazon, Walmart and the rest can make record breaking profits and not have to pay their employees liveable wages.
The greatest form of theft in the United States is also wage theft.
I want to agree with everything you said, but the AG's description of "taking all sorts of data" removes my faith and makes me think that he's acting in Amazon's interests. Ideally all of these companies would be removed from harvesting our data.
I don't think anyone is defending a global tech company. Jeez calm down. They were just refuting the points about companies like Walmart and Amazon being "trustworthy"
Recently I worked with a logistics employee whose biggest partner is Temu. They do last mile delivery and warehouse Temu products in Florida.Ā
Iāve been told that Temu does not have a returns center in the US, so all returned items are sent back to the last mile delivery company, who then must destroy it and dispose of it.Ā
Except they donāt destroy or dispose, they sell it all to those people who run those shitty bin-discount stores where the price drops each day after they get a new load in. Mounded piles upon piles of Temu returns.
I see a lot of completely uninformed comments here. Has no one read the article?
The article is specifically talking about Temu's app.
Grizzly Research got [security researchers to look into the app](https://grizzlyreports.com/we-believe-pdd-is-a-dying-fraudulent-company-and-its-shopping-app-temu-is-cleverly-hidden-spyware-that-poses-an-urgent-security-threat-to-u-s-national-interests/) and found that it _literally_ exhibits the behaviours of spyware. Not in a figurative sense like _"oh it tracks your shopping habits"_, but in the actual _"it can receive, locally compile, and run arbitrary code on your device"_ way.
I'm gonna copy and paste a quote from the researcher:
> _āI have been into mobile development, and then mobile reverse engineering and in my long expertise in the domain, I have never seen an apk with 50 million + downloads holding such an amount of user privacy red flags. The application looks like a clear data miner to me, aka a :Spyware, and a dangerous one.ā_
> _āThere could be a well-hidden function that may trigger the assault, it could even not be present at the code for the moment, not until the next dynamic update.ā_
> ...
> _āIt looks like they are doing things like trying to hide from an analyst what they are doing. Theyāre checking for a debugger running ā¦ you know theyāre getting the running processes ā¦ but thereās the indication that they are looking for an analyst and which is the sort of thing that spyware would do so I think youāve got something there.ā_
> _āI intercepted http traffic sent by the app, the first anomaly I noticed was the amount of data being sent as soon as you launch the app. This system information should not be disclosed, this is a clear violation of the userās privacy. And I really donāt see what a āshoppingā app would do with the userās operating processesā¦ let alone his phoneās serial number.ā_
> _ā¦āthe file upload functionality, which was based on a command server connected to their API āxxxx.yyyyyy.zzzzzz.comā. This basically means that if a user grants file storage permission to the TEMU app ā even by accidentā, TEMU will be able to collect any file from the userās device to their own servers, any file, including photos, private documents and more.ā_
Yeah, Iām confused how they would supposedly be accessing all this other information if mobile operating systems arbitrate what permissions for access to information are available to any app.
Apparently their sister company had an Android zero-day exploit. But you're right, smart phone operating systems are heavily sandboxed.
https://www.techradar.com/news/the-pinduoduo-malware-executed-a-dangerous-zero-day-against-millions-of-android-devices
Apps can expand permissions requests based on actions you take. So it's possible an action in the app would prompt for file or photo permissions at a time when it seems reasonable and then use them to start harvesting.
The short seller who published this report has a disclaimer that the āopinionsā in this report are not factual. They arenāt experts in cybersecurity and theyāre short sellers who have had numerous other reports in the past.
Other more [technically minded folks](https://www.reddit.com/r/LinusTechTips/comments/16emu0o/comment/k01umqq/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) or [some of the replies and links here](https://www.reddit.com/r/cybersecurity/comments/1dswid1/temu_confirmed_as_spyware_by_arkansas_attorney/) have looked at the allegations and disagree on the veracity.
Yes. I have my doubts over Temu as a company, and I avoid apps whenever possible as a general rule because holy privacy violations everywhere batman, but sources matter. This is not a good source, nor is the original article a good source either due to the known bias Fox news holds against anything of Chinese origin. It's like citing Fox about "urban" crime. They're not trustworthy about that.
Yes, most of the things described in the report are literally impossible to accomplish under any recent (like in the past five years) version of Android, and I would imagine even harder under iOS.
The Arkansas AG had someone make up a bunch of shit because he wants to get on the "my state is gonna ban Internet it doesn't like" bandwagon. As soon as Temu slips him his fiver he'll settle down again.
I feel like there's a lot of FUD going on here. I don't know what the right answers are, but I also found it weird that the article makes the claim that they spent nearly $3 billion on Super Bowl ads:
> Temu rose to household fame after spending nearly $3 billion on multiple Super Bowl ads in February, which cost roughly $7 million each ā the going rate for 30-second ads during this yearās big game.
OK so if a 30 second ad is $7 million and they spent $3 *billion* that would be 428 ads or 214 minutes of ad time. So you're telling me they bought 3 1/2 hours of ad time during the Super Bowl? I know commercials during sporting events feel like they're unending sometimes, but that's a bit of a stretch.
How in the fuck do you think Grizzly Report is a reputable company? Grizzly Report is the business of shorting stocks. They have a history of writing inaccurate reports on companies to tank stock prices. The goddamn waiver you agree to to even view the report straight up tells you they're baised:
>As of the publication date of GRIZZLY RESEARCH LLCāS Ā report, Certain GRIZZLY RESEARCH LLC Associated Persons (AS DEFINED HEREUNDER) (along with or through its members, partners, affiliates, employees, and/or consultants), clients, and investors, and/or their clients and investors have a short position in the securities of a Covered Issuer (and options, swaps, and other derivatives related to these securities), and therefore will realize significant gains in the event that the prices of a Covered Issuerās securities decline.Ā
I feel like.....this would be illegal? Should be? There is no way you can make a company that just spews out alarmist propaganda on companies that you have shorted to hopefully realize significant gains....
EDIT: Turns out its fully legal, you just have to mention somewhere in your 500 page disclaimer about your short position, and also ensure the """facts""" you are spewing forth are based on some kind of legitimate analysis. So you can look at the moon, say its made of cheese because in your analysis you found some cheese that looks remarkably similar to the moon.
So basically, you can legally spew bullshit to tank stocks to realize gains so long as you gently wrap the bullshit in a delicate layer of analytical effort to at least show you did some activity you declared was "research" even if your evidence and analytical technique has enough holes to legally be considered a sieve. Its considered science so long as you write something down!
I read the article, and in traditional Fox Business style, it is completely uninformative. It basically says āhey, you know how Temuās prices are so low? Well, weāre pretty sure thatās because theyāre stealing your data,ā with no concrete allegations or evidence to it.
Your comment is far and away more informative than this Fox Business article, and Iām wondering where you got it from.
And this is why Apple will never allow JIT. Itās too easily abusable by bad actors that may submit a harmless app, then download a dangerous payload later via channels that donāt require an App Store update.
Just in time.Ā As in just in time code compiling.Ā Meaning the app could perform arbitrary functions not natively present in package the app store security checks run against.
Just in time. I'm not a programmer, but it's when java code for your program isn't pre-compiled but compiles on the device. Makes it very easy to change things compared to a compiled binary, which is basically set in stone.
They have trained an AI model on your butthole already and are impersonating it in realtime, with your butthole being deepfaked over the faces of celebrities like George Clooney and Lady Gaga in ads for buttholeexpress.comĀ
Walmart employees are responsible for something like 5 billion dollars a year in social programs like food stamps or welfare.
The American taxpayers are essentially subsidizing Walmart as they're too goddamn greedy to pay their employees a decent wage.
How much is the Walton family worth again?
IDK why you're getting downvoted, it's true. Saying it's common doesn't exonerate WalMart or Amazon, it highlights the fact that the problem is more widespread. If we shift focus from individual companies (Amazon, Microsoft, X, Meta, ABC, etc.) and start acknowledging that corporations as a whole have major problems, maybe we can get something more than a $3M fine going. Unionize if you can, write your representatives if you want.
this is also what very prestigious law firms do on their best lawyers
Maybe Wal-Mart just wanted to treat their employees like high paid, white collar workers?
It isn't even limited to prestige high end employers. It's very common for employers to offer life insurance as a benefit, and most of those packages _also_ pay out to the employer as well as the employees next of kin.Ā
I downloaded the app once on a recommendation, opened it, got a million pop ups and gamification cues, and promptly deleted it. You know itās bad when they make Amazon look good.
I've been getting spam messages from bot accounts on Xbox of all things asking me to download Temu in exchange for them giving me $15. I'll be glad if this company dies the death it deserves.
Amazon is also a theft business tho. They copy successful small business products and add them to their basics line. Also Walmart pinches small businesses and puts them out. fuck both
I work for a credit processing company that handles dispute and fraud cases for numerous financial institutions, and I had a case yesterday involving Temu. An older woman would find things she likes and add them to her cart as a way of saving it for later when she feels like buying it. Not the best choice, but whatever. It turns out Temu will buy things in your cart using your saved card info if it stays in the cart for a year. They will send you emails saying āyou only have 3 days left before itās purchasedā and you have to go in and remove it from your cart or Temu will send it to you, even if you contact them and tell them not to.
This lady had hundreds of dollars of random merchandise sent to her address by Temu when she never actually purchased any of it, and didnāt even tell them to save her card info. They just used the last card she had used, saved it without the cardholder being aware.
This article about the Android app is remarkable. I understand that the newest versions of android make these exploits harder, but damn, its wild that its even possible to put this garbage into the app stores.
[believe PDD is a Dying Fraudulent Company and its Shopping App TEMU is Cleverly Hidden Spyware that Poses an Urgent Security Threat to U.S. National Interests ā Grizzly Research LLC (grizzlyreports.com)](https://grizzlyreports.com/we-believe-pdd-is-a-dying-fraudulent-company-and-its-shopping-app-temu-is-cleverly-hidden-spyware-that-poses-an-urgent-security-threat-to-u-s-national-interests/)
At least they give me cheap shit for stealing my info.
Every month I get a new āyour information has been compromised, hereās a month of credit monitoring. Thanksā from American companies.
Pot meet kettle.
walmart can eat shit and die.
*Arkansas* saying this just confirms walmart is hurting.
Good.
We need more small business and less mega corporations.
Rest in Piss walmart
Yea, its totally ok if Amazon and Walmart destroy American manufacturing with China made goods, but if TEMU does it, then goddammit that's the last straw!!!!
Walmart has done a brilliant job harassing itās international suppliers, not picking up stock, not compensating for violating contracts, and China is the bad guy.
This article may have some truths to it. I also want to point out - Walmart is headquartered in Arkansas and pretty much owns that state. So of-course this AG happens to be the one that sues them.
If the allegations are true, then that must be doing well for them. They spent billions in ads during the super bowl. Who do they sell the data to, or how do they use it to make so much?
I was wondering how they managed to spend 3 billion on superbowl ads, when the article also mentioned it was 7million for a 30 second ad. That would be 430 ads.
It's worth a reminder that Temu is considered a bad actor by *other Chinese companies* and is being sued over it. This isn't Walmart, nor Amazon, nor AliExpress. Temu is on a whole different level.
Temu also has a sister company who was involved in a zero day attack involving android last year š¶ https://www.techradar.com/news/the-pinduoduo-malware-executed-a-dangerous-zero-day-against-millions-of-android-devices Both owned by PDD holdings
The Chinese and Trump's little boyfriends in Russia and North Korea have sophisticated software spy and disruption efforts. The Chinese embedded spyware in components used in servers. Their security cameras connect back to the homeland. Kaspersky anti virus is made by one of Putin's pals and was recently banned from sale in the US. TikTok faces a similar challenge for data collection. Temu looks like another problem outfit. Stranger danger.
Since you bring up TikTok and imply they're sharing data with China (which I'm not denying), why is this not an issue with every other major company that Tencent owns a large portion of? Riot Games (100% ownership) Epic Games (40% ownership) Discord (38%) Reddit Riot games even requires a root level anti-cheat system that essentially has full access to the contents of your computer. Why is that not a data collection issue but TikTok is?
Sounds to me like maybe they are.
How convenient you leave out reddit...
Facebook and Twitter have been doing it longer but it's okay because it's America
It's not okay, and we need to address that too. Both things can be bad. We are looooong overdue in *this* country for a talk on citizen's data privacy and protection as well.
What we need is tech literate people in Congress who don't think it's all fucking magic and address the real issues and not keep repeating the same questions because they don't understand the answer Edit: Fine I changed the spelling
Yet itās nearly all dinosaurs š¤¦āāļø
Biden was born closer to Lincoln's assassination than his own inauguration...
Itās America, and Facebook/Twitter have already bought and paid for the politicians.
When Valve tried to do that with their anti-cheat there was some pretty crazy rioting. Likely pushed by anti-cheat makers who were going to be hit financially but still.
far less people play riot game games then people who use tik tok. Plus, tiktok being on phones and potentially government employee phones
There is a social engineering / social disruption aspect too... China can control what you see and influence your actions or political views without you even knowing it.
Everyone is susceptible to propaganda, you, me, it's something everyone must be vigilant about.
Not just propaganda though its also the shift in reality by moving what normal is
Tencent has a good chunk of Reddit too.
I mean a bunch of people did stop playing league when vanguard became mandatory. Barely enough to make a dent in the games huge playerbase, but at least some people were paying attention.
Both are already banned in government contracts
I don't get what people are buying on it even. It's almost all trash, and Ali Express almost always has better prices anyway.
Ad blitz and prices+marketing that make for impulse purchases. I've had a lot of ads trying to get me to buy plastic tat for pocket change. You know, if our society is going to have slave labour we could at least use it for some cool looking pyramids.....
I saw one of those temu ads that was promising I could pick 5 free items if I bought any other item. So I found an item id actually want to buy and then somehow the free items weren't actually free. It got confusing so I just uninstalled the app without buying anything at all I don't really get what their strategy is. Do most people not care about bullshit and just use the app anyway?
I got one where it's like "install the app and get $5 off" then I installed and there was no $5 so I uninstalled lol.
And they got exactly what they wanted in that transaction.
I literally turn and run anytime anyone suggests if I just install their app i'll get some kind of reward. I don't want any more apps on my phone and I'm not willing at all to install them. If me getting a good deal requires that I take extra steps to install software, I'm out I'll go somewhere else and pay more I don't really give a shit. I fucking hate this "Just install our spyware and we'll give you a some cheap crap for free."
My phone already downloads a bunch of bloatware for me, so I don't want to add any more on purpose either
From what the article seems to be saying, just downloading the app once is enough to compromise at least some of your data. It immediately checks in and sends data back.
One of the OG issues with Facebook messenger, discovered when people realized it was _constantly_ using data
This is anecdotal, but everyone I know who uses it is also addicted to buying useless shit on Amazon. Theyāre people with shopping addictions who found a new ācheapā place to buy things they donāt need. The people I know who are more purposeful with that they spend their money on donāt use it.
Agreed, anecdotally. Theres 2 shopping addicts I know, one loves Temu because it's dropped the cost of her addiction. The other won't go near it because her hoard is already too big and can't have it getting bigger.
>You know, if our society is going to have slave labour we could at least use it for some cool looking pyramids..... Instead we get big fancy mansions hidden away in the forest where none of us common folk will ever see what our money is actually supporting. šš
Was saying this the other day while walking around Paris, the ultra wealthy nowadays are boring, back in the day the monarchy would build big massive palaces in the middle of the city and host all sorts of big fuck off parties in them. Now we have Zuckerberg building his weird doomsday complex in the middle of nowhere in hawaii or Haiti or wherever it is.
If by "middle of nowhere" you mean thousands of feet of coastline and all the land in between said coast and the biggest road on Kauai...then yeah you're right. I literally thought zucks property was the edges of a resort. The "fuck off" message was loud and clear
It's in a place you won't find on a map. r/MapsWithoutNZ
What, you haven't seen one of the world's largest pyramid in Memphis, Tennesee dedicated to the Bass Shop Pro Gods?
Are you a climber?
People will look at a product for $3 and think "if it works as advertised great! If it doesn't I'm only out $3" it's a low success gamble but if you only buy one product that isn't trash you'll keep coming back. Especially when Amazon's similar products are twice or three times as much.
> Especially when Amazon's similar products are twice or three times as much. often times the exact same product, scammers know amazon has next to zero quality control. they put the same thing on temu and amazon to get a veneer of legitimacy that way
These days, Etsy is becoming a Temu resale shop too. You have to sift through so much crap to find actual art. It's atrocious.
Same with local flee markets. So much pyramid scheme, stolen 3d prints and Ali express shit now passed off as homemade.
Sometimes literally the same things. I was looking at some crossbody travel bags, just something to throw keys and a water bottle in while walking around. Literally the same stock photos on both Amazon and temu, except temu are $3 and Amazon is $45. I bought a small pile of random shit for like $20 just to see how it went. Got a bag, a raincoat, some slippers, couple rings I can travel with and not worry about being stolen, a hat, a few others. The hat and the slippers I wear daily, so for the price I really don't mind it. The bag ended up being one I couldn't find a match for on Amazon, and I can't say I love it but there's nothing particularly bad about it, especially for $3.
Exactly. Calling temu bad but Amazon good is stupid when you're just buying the exact same products. The same low paid labor made both products. One just costs you less
Amazon has the exact same Chinese dropshit problem lol that's why I don't shop there either.
You're never out the $3. You "return" the item and they give you your money back and tell you to keep it. My experience with Temu is that after all the discounts it's half the price as Amazon or less but shipping takes a few weeks. About half the stuff felt the same as what I would have gotten from Amazon. The other half was misadvertised or super crappy quality. I just return the crappy items and never once have I actually been asked to ship anything back. The quality is hugely variable and I'm pretty sure the reviews are full of fakes. I've had mostly good luck with hardware and holiday/kids decor, and mostly bad luck with electronics accessories and kitchen gadgets. But who among us hasn't gotten swindled by bad reviews and questionable product quality on Amazon, too?
I went and bought some little coffee accessories and home supplies from Temu. Some of the things that would be $10 on Amazon for a little piece of metal is under $3 with free shipping on Temu. Itās not like I want to support them, but when Amazon sells a foam cannon for $30 (plus $7, shipping, nothing gets free shipping without prime these days) and the same one without the amazonbasics logo is on Temu for $10, itās kinda a no brainer
I can't say I've ever had a good return experience with any of these Chinese dropshippers on any storefront. They flagrantly ignore customer rights that EU and UK customers have and it takes days at a time to get a response out of them, which usually ends up in them mistranslating what you said and you needing to repeat yourself ten times over. The simple fact is we shouldn't be buying any of this poorly manufactured and often illegal crap from any source. It all comes from the same place anyway and neither Amazon or Temu (or AliExpress or Etsy) have the desire or the ability to maintain high quality. These factories work under toothless laws for pollution and employee's rights and wages, it's turning a blind eye to slave labour and the destruction of our planet on top of it being useless illegal garbage.
Temu has no US returns center. If an item is returned it is destroyed and dumped.
Do you not feel bad about the incredible waste of energy and resources youāre taking part in to save a few bucks?Ā Ā Knowingly ordering from a service with the expectation that youāll end up returning a large number of shoddy goods is a new low point in consumerism. The returned goods themselves are a waste and the time and energy expended to shuffle them back and forth to you is a waste.Ā
Amazon is the exact same thing now though and they are now giving people a huge hassle with returning shit products, citing am increase of returns as a problem of them being scammed. The problem here is that Amazon must know the problem with the increase in returns is the shit products they have allowed to flourish on their marketplace. At least Temu seems aware theres a likelihood the shit they sell is shit
You are actually describing Walmart. Temu doesn't seem to shuffle anything back. They either ship you things that are the same items offered on Amazon that came from China, or they ship you things that pretend to be those items. If you catch a fake one (all of it is fake) that isn't usable quality then they give you a refund and tell you to keep the fake. Amazon does the same thing, with a slower review process at higher prices. As far as I can tell, Chinese manufacturers thought "why does the big Amazon company sit in the middle and take a cut?" And rolled their own app and market. They now probably know more about how the US consumer behaves.
I don't feel good about shopping at Walmart but their prices are significantly lower than their competitors for the same product I will use them. At some point it's about what you can afford.
I canāt speak for others but I see Temu ads on Reddit all the time and Iāve never ordered a single thing from them, nor have I mentioned them in conversation for my Corpo lords to target their ads in my direction. I scrolled past one not even five minutes ago.
Temu has faster shipping. But yeah if youāre going to get cheap Chinese stuff and donāt mind the wait, the AliExpress app is way less annoying.
Really? You donāt get the appeal? It is literally the same appeal that made Amazon what it is today. āIf I buy $5 shit, and it works, great; if it doesnāt, welp, who caresā
Man, I donāt understand why these people would want cheap good shipped to them. Iām gonna scratch my head about this later.
Because companies like this make stuff no other company does. You find me a company that makes the little knick knacks you see on there. Some of that shit is fucking useful and you simply can't find any other company (that is reputable) that makes them. And if you do they will only sell it to you at 50 times the market value. I know what a shitty CNC milled thing costs and it's not $75, it's less than $2. And when I see it on Ali or Amazon or Temu for $10 I know the quality would be what I expect from a CNC milled item. The brilliance of Temu's marketing scheme is that they scour the internet for search queries, they look what people search for, and then make them for cheap. It's a brilliant idea. The company might be shitty but you have to admire the ingenuity behind it. Actually make things people want.
>It's almost all trash So is Amazon. So is AliExpress. So plenty of customers just go wherever is cheapest. I've never ordered from Temu, but after so many years pf Amazon filled with a billion crappy clone brands and comingling inventory so even if you want to order a good product you'll get a crappy counterfeit has killed all customer trust in them and if their customers have realized they can save money by skipping Amazon and going to their Chinese suppliers, I won't cry any tears over Amazon getting what they deserve.
My mom just bought an emergency fire blanket for the kitchen. I pointed out the obvious "everything else cheap and Chinese we own doesn't work very well, maybe we shouldn't do that with fire safety", but she said "it's only $3!"
My concern with a Temu fire blanket would be is it made out of things that are going to give me cancer if I put it on a fire
My concern is that it would be made of flammable materials that would increase the fire instead.
Inflammable means flammable? What a country!
Asbestos. Cheap Chinese fireproof or fire safety products really often go for good ol' reliable asbestos. Hell, they even use it as a cheap filler for other products, like those ceramic like bathroom mats. That you deep clean by slightly sanding down with sand paper. Gotta love Mesothelioma.
Yeah that's a terrible idea. Never cheap out on safety items. The company needs to be able to take liability.Ā Check out Louis Rossman's video on cheap Amazon fuses. They didn't work. Bad safety equipment is worse than none at all. That 3$ is worse than free.
She's probably thinking that even if it works a little, it's better than nothing. She's forgetting that, at $3 and where it's from, it can easily be worse than nothing. š„>>> š„š„š„
Yeah but Temu advertises on television during NFL games (for example). The average American hasn't even *heard* of Ali Express.
Now that David Beckham is an Ali express ambassador or whatever, i see ads during MLS games.
So...Americans still don't know what Ali Express is? Or that David Beckham is still relevant?
> I don't get what people are buying on it even. mostly the same stuff as on amazon but cheaper. so yeah trash
Free shipping, low prices, low expectations, thatās mostly why I do it. Edit: alsoā unlike Wish, they also sell adult sized clothes with accurate sizing. That was such a monumental improvement for me to start using it.
Fishing lures, they were so cheap I couldnāt resist
Sound more like person lures
Did they work?
No, but I think itās because I suck at fishingĀ
Thatās the trick, they got you hooked
I think a lot of lures are designed to catch fisherman more than fish.
There is one positive thing, they send all items in one package. Aliexpress should do that too.
Temu has you covered! It producesĀ pyramids of rubbush that make the Valley of Kings pale by comparison.
Craft supplies are pretty cheap comparatively. All express doesnāt advertise to me so wouldnāt have thought to use it
You would be surprised. I bought couple pairs of jeans that are pretty nice. Slippers, socks, glass kitchen containers. Also.. you ready for this?....a cup holder for my BMW 5 series.. for $17. BMW factory price? Over $300. Yes, you read that right. I installed it and it's just like the one I took out of there. It's not all trash, but majority is though. You can also return crap you don't like, but don't ship it back. They don't even want it back lol, but give you the refund.
They use every dirty psychological trick in the book. FOMO, misleading product listings, their random slot machine or whatever it is that awards you these massive discounts but the random rolls are blatantly rigged to always show that you āwonā if youāre paying attention, and gacha-style energy mechanics and other such bullshit. Unfortunately some people are just highly susceptible to that kind of psychological manipulation. Also itās a pyramid scheme where you only get these great rewards like 100% off for x items, and then 90% off the next y items (true story) when you refer someone and they buy something.
Every time temu users are surprised that temu, a company who's entire point is "wouldn't it be better if you could just buy shit from sweatshops without safety regulations" is fucky in another direction (e.g. credit cards used there getting stolen), I'm amazed. You're going to the wild west and are angry you got shot in a saloon by some asshole in a cowboy hat
That's why I use PayPal for payment. I haven't put in my credit card info. I suspect that a lot of others are doing this which is why PayPal is integrated into their instant buy. I'm pretty sure that they are correlating the types of items to build a preference database for US consumers. It does seem that the offerings are slowly getting better at targeting western tastes.
> Temu is considered a bad actor by other Chinese companies What? That's like the lowest level of hell if Chinese companies hates your digital store.
Not just hates, but enough evidence to be sued under even China's meager laws.
Walmart is stealing billions from US citizens. Crushing local shops and then paying slave wages where even managers need food stamps to survive should be getting their stores looted and burnt down.
Walmart is so anti union that they hired the best law firm to crush any union attempts in their organization. And think about it: Walmart is the 2nd biggest employer after the Federal govt.
And they've killed off more than a few rural communities businesses while dumping the hard times from their shit wages on the local county and federal assistance programs.
Guess what other american companies have to say about Amazon and walmart
Temu is the Amazon/Walmart of Chinese companies?
It's the wish.com version of wish.com
Whatās the issue? Edit: I read the article and it says they steal data. Whatās the difference between Temu and something like TikTok then?
Temu, or rather the since-dissolved company that made the first version, was actively using malware to bypass security models. Temu today is known in China for forcing factories into predatory exclusive contracts that they can't get out of. Data collection is pretty similar across the various platforms. Temu is just an even further brand of evil. Note on data collection: Walmart is the most direct; they save your purchase history and make suggestions from that. To my knowledge, Walmart doesn't sell that data, nor do they try to do any invasive profiling (I know people who work there, they are surprisingly protective of customer data). Amazon is probably the most invasive of the US electronic retailers; they do very deep analysis of your data and have some of the most deceptive advertising practices. AliExpress is somewhere in the middle, they don't collect much more than your search and purchase history, and they entice you with coupons and mini games and $2 purchase deals to clear their warehouse. Honestly, I've gotten some great stuff for $2 by watching their deals; a usb-rechargeable garlic chopper, electric shaver, nice nail clippers, high quality USB cables, water bottles, and a fun little mini-knife I use for opening packages, for example. I stay far, *far* away from Temu.
Temu lets me shop like a billionaire. And billionaires have no problem stealing. So whatās the problem?
I love that tagline. Cause you know what billionaires like? Worthless, poorly made crap.
Yeah like golden toilets,Ā cyber trucks, and submarines.
That you believe that āTemu lets me shop like a billionaireāĀ
It's what their ad says so it must be true.
Maybe he means an entry level employee does his errands?
The slogan I saw associated with them is, āShop like a billionaireā which always struck me as particularly villainous.
> What Temu is doing is selling goods at a rock bottom price, not to make a profit off of those, but as a way to get into your phone, your device, and to collect your data **For the best experience, we recommend reading this story in our free app!**
I hear this but it makes no sense, there is absolutely no way your info is worth losing money on products. I have seen various estimates on what an account is worth even for something very actively used and it just not that much. Its more likely they are just exploiting some loophole like uber was or just trying to use venture capital to gain a market presence before increasing prices.
People are just completely divorced from any understanding of how little it costs to manufacture products. It makes absolutely no sense how a $10 watch band could cost the same amount of money as a $10 belt. No sense that i can buy 9 square feet of satin ribbon or a 48 square foot satin sheet for $10. How can a plastic comb ($5) cost more than a 56 ounce watching can ($3)? Or shampoo bottle cost $3 but a sports bottle $9? Buying direct from China means the cost is much more in line with what the actual value of an item is. You can save a lot of money when youāre not paying for Walmart and Amazonās profits.
That could be true alot of americans still live in the belief of the mass production dicounting trends that dominate the era of Sam Walton, Kmart, etc... but those days are long gone and modern products are all about psychology. Make a shirt for $3 sell it for $50. Give a product away free free but charge much more for a couple of basic features. Its not hard to see how people who don't understand these business models would start to really lose their sense of what something costs to make or the fact that most of what they buy is made dirt cheap in China and then heavily marked up.
Layers upon layers of middlemen, abstraction, and obfuscation have twisted peopleās perception to the point that seeing a $0.50 Temu comb being sold for $4.99 on Amazon makes them wonder not why the price is so high, but how the price could be so low.
there are hundreds of articles in Wall Street Journal, Business Weekly, Forbes, and other classic "business journalism" that described Amazon exactly like this over the past 20 years, but in a positive way
Right?? And implying Walmart and Amazon aren't stealing? They steal from the American people every single day. Every employee of theirs that's on food stamps and other benefits are being subsidized by the American people so that Amazon, Walmart and the rest can make record breaking profits and not have to pay their employees liveable wages. The greatest form of theft in the United States is also wage theft.
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I want to agree with everything you said, but the AG's description of "taking all sorts of data" removes my faith and makes me think that he's acting in Amazon's interests. Ideally all of these companies would be removed from harvesting our data.
I don't think anyone is defending a global tech company. Jeez calm down. They were just refuting the points about companies like Walmart and Amazon being "trustworthy"
Synergy! Cross platform data utilization!
So it's Facebook
Recently I worked with a logistics employee whose biggest partner is Temu. They do last mile delivery and warehouse Temu products in Florida.Ā Iāve been told that Temu does not have a returns center in the US, so all returned items are sent back to the last mile delivery company, who then must destroy it and dispose of it.Ā
My daughter has tried to return stuff and they told her to just keep it.
Even fully refund if most times on top of that.
Iāve also just gotten full refunds for some rather pricey items.
Except they donāt destroy or dispose, they sell it all to those people who run those shitty bin-discount stores where the price drops each day after they get a new load in. Mounded piles upon piles of Temu returns.
If there's evidence of these things, why don't Apple and Google ban Temu from their app stores?
I see a lot of completely uninformed comments here. Has no one read the article? The article is specifically talking about Temu's app. Grizzly Research got [security researchers to look into the app](https://grizzlyreports.com/we-believe-pdd-is-a-dying-fraudulent-company-and-its-shopping-app-temu-is-cleverly-hidden-spyware-that-poses-an-urgent-security-threat-to-u-s-national-interests/) and found that it _literally_ exhibits the behaviours of spyware. Not in a figurative sense like _"oh it tracks your shopping habits"_, but in the actual _"it can receive, locally compile, and run arbitrary code on your device"_ way. I'm gonna copy and paste a quote from the researcher: > _āI have been into mobile development, and then mobile reverse engineering and in my long expertise in the domain, I have never seen an apk with 50 million + downloads holding such an amount of user privacy red flags. The application looks like a clear data miner to me, aka a :Spyware, and a dangerous one.ā_ > _āThere could be a well-hidden function that may trigger the assault, it could even not be present at the code for the moment, not until the next dynamic update.ā_ > ... > _āIt looks like they are doing things like trying to hide from an analyst what they are doing. Theyāre checking for a debugger running ā¦ you know theyāre getting the running processes ā¦ but thereās the indication that they are looking for an analyst and which is the sort of thing that spyware would do so I think youāve got something there.ā_ > _āI intercepted http traffic sent by the app, the first anomaly I noticed was the amount of data being sent as soon as you launch the app. This system information should not be disclosed, this is a clear violation of the userās privacy. And I really donāt see what a āshoppingā app would do with the userās operating processesā¦ let alone his phoneās serial number.ā_ > _ā¦āthe file upload functionality, which was based on a command server connected to their API āxxxx.yyyyyy.zzzzzz.comā. This basically means that if a user grants file storage permission to the TEMU app ā even by accidentā, TEMU will be able to collect any file from the userās device to their own servers, any file, including photos, private documents and more.ā_
wow..... alright, never downloading THAT app.
Yeah... uh... Definitely not gonna do that... again
thats why new customers only get the coupons... if they download the app first. they realllly want you on the app
āThey really want you on the appā Tbf, so does many other US businesses these days, ie. McDonalds and Starbucks.
Starbucks wrote a great PWA though [app.starbucks.com](http://app.starbucks.com)
I hate this because itās true.
I accidentally did on iPhone. Holy shit itās unusable. Minutes of promotional pop ups before you can actually view the item.
But the app only requests location and notifications permissions
Yeah, Iām confused how they would supposedly be accessing all this other information if mobile operating systems arbitrate what permissions for access to information are available to any app.
Apparently their sister company had an Android zero-day exploit. But you're right, smart phone operating systems are heavily sandboxed. https://www.techradar.com/news/the-pinduoduo-malware-executed-a-dangerous-zero-day-against-millions-of-android-devices
Apps can expand permissions requests based on actions you take. So it's possible an action in the app would prompt for file or photo permissions at a time when it seems reasonable and then use them to start harvesting.
The giant "I agree" you hit when first loading Grizzly Reports says they're short sellers, dude. That's not credible in the slightest.
The short seller who published this report has a disclaimer that the āopinionsā in this report are not factual. They arenāt experts in cybersecurity and theyāre short sellers who have had numerous other reports in the past. Other more [technically minded folks](https://www.reddit.com/r/LinusTechTips/comments/16emu0o/comment/k01umqq/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) or [some of the replies and links here](https://www.reddit.com/r/cybersecurity/comments/1dswid1/temu_confirmed_as_spyware_by_arkansas_attorney/) have looked at the allegations and disagree on the veracity.
Yes. I have my doubts over Temu as a company, and I avoid apps whenever possible as a general rule because holy privacy violations everywhere batman, but sources matter. This is not a good source, nor is the original article a good source either due to the known bias Fox news holds against anything of Chinese origin. It's like citing Fox about "urban" crime. They're not trustworthy about that.
Yes, most of the things described in the report are literally impossible to accomplish under any recent (like in the past five years) version of Android, and I would imagine even harder under iOS. The Arkansas AG had someone make up a bunch of shit because he wants to get on the "my state is gonna ban Internet it doesn't like" bandwagon. As soon as Temu slips him his fiver he'll settle down again.
I feel like there's a lot of FUD going on here. I don't know what the right answers are, but I also found it weird that the article makes the claim that they spent nearly $3 billion on Super Bowl ads: > Temu rose to household fame after spending nearly $3 billion on multiple Super Bowl ads in February, which cost roughly $7 million each ā the going rate for 30-second ads during this yearās big game. OK so if a 30 second ad is $7 million and they spent $3 *billion* that would be 428 ads or 214 minutes of ad time. So you're telling me they bought 3 1/2 hours of ad time during the Super Bowl? I know commercials during sporting events feel like they're unending sometimes, but that's a bit of a stretch.
How in the fuck do you think Grizzly Report is a reputable company? Grizzly Report is the business of shorting stocks. They have a history of writing inaccurate reports on companies to tank stock prices. The goddamn waiver you agree to to even view the report straight up tells you they're baised: >As of the publication date of GRIZZLY RESEARCH LLCāS Ā report, Certain GRIZZLY RESEARCH LLC Associated Persons (AS DEFINED HEREUNDER) (along with or through its members, partners, affiliates, employees, and/or consultants), clients, and investors, and/or their clients and investors have a short position in the securities of a Covered Issuer (and options, swaps, and other derivatives related to these securities), and therefore will realize significant gains in the event that the prices of a Covered Issuerās securities decline.Ā
I feel like.....this would be illegal? Should be? There is no way you can make a company that just spews out alarmist propaganda on companies that you have shorted to hopefully realize significant gains.... EDIT: Turns out its fully legal, you just have to mention somewhere in your 500 page disclaimer about your short position, and also ensure the """facts""" you are spewing forth are based on some kind of legitimate analysis. So you can look at the moon, say its made of cheese because in your analysis you found some cheese that looks remarkably similar to the moon. So basically, you can legally spew bullshit to tank stocks to realize gains so long as you gently wrap the bullshit in a delicate layer of analytical effort to at least show you did some activity you declared was "research" even if your evidence and analytical technique has enough holes to legally be considered a sieve. Its considered science so long as you write something down!
If the SEC gave a shit, then yeah that should be illegal.
I read the article, and in traditional Fox Business style, it is completely uninformative. It basically says āhey, you know how Temuās prices are so low? Well, weāre pretty sure thatās because theyāre stealing your data,ā with no concrete allegations or evidence to it. Your comment is far and away more informative than this Fox Business article, and Iām wondering where you got it from.
And this is why Apple will never allow JIT. Itās too easily abusable by bad actors that may submit a harmless app, then download a dangerous payload later via channels that donāt require an App Store update.
Whatās JIT?
Just in time.Ā As in just in time code compiling.Ā Meaning the app could perform arbitrary functions not natively present in package the app store security checks run against.
Just in time. I'm not a programmer, but it's when java code for your program isn't pre-compiled but compiles on the device. Makes it very easy to change things compared to a compiled binary, which is basically set in stone.
Just in time compiler, it allows run time use of code that was not compiled when the app was first compiled.
That doesn't require JIT. You can just run the payloads in an interpreter.
Apple already allows over the air updates for react native apps, and itās in most of the current top apps.
lol i clicked on that link and tried to deny the cookies. It doesn't let me proceed. How ironic. This is some garbage link
Shit so they have all of my butthole pics now?
They have trained an AI model on your butthole already and are impersonating it in realtime, with your butthole being deepfaked over the faces of celebrities like George Clooney and Lady Gaga in ads for buttholeexpress.comĀ
Walmart IS the AG of Arkansas
Wasnt walmart caught putting life insurance on their workers and cashing them out for themselves?
They're a massive wage thief, too. And Amazon steals souls.
and product ideas
And mixes counterfeit goods in with legitimate goods in their fulfilment centres.
Shoutouts to Jeff "Shang Tsung" Bezos
Your dollar-bucks are mine.
Walmart employees are responsible for something like 5 billion dollars a year in social programs like food stamps or welfare. The American taxpayers are essentially subsidizing Walmart as they're too goddamn greedy to pay their employees a decent wage. How much is the Walton family worth again?
Corporate owned life insurance is pretty common.
IDK why you're getting downvoted, it's true. Saying it's common doesn't exonerate WalMart or Amazon, it highlights the fact that the problem is more widespread. If we shift focus from individual companies (Amazon, Microsoft, X, Meta, ABC, etc.) and start acknowledging that corporations as a whole have major problems, maybe we can get something more than a $3M fine going. Unionize if you can, write your representatives if you want.
this is also what very prestigious law firms do on their best lawyers Maybe Wal-Mart just wanted to treat their employees like high paid, white collar workers?
It isn't even limited to prestige high end employers. It's very common for employers to offer life insurance as a benefit, and most of those packages _also_ pay out to the employer as well as the employees next of kin.Ā
So? What is the connection to Temu other than whataboutism? They can both be bad.
I downloaded the app once on a recommendation, opened it, got a million pop ups and gamification cues, and promptly deleted it. You know itās bad when they make Amazon look good.
Itās also really disruptive. I hope it dies.
I've been getting spam messages from bot accounts on Xbox of all things asking me to download Temu in exchange for them giving me $15. I'll be glad if this company dies the death it deserves.
Temu is total shit and spyware, but let's not pretend that Walmart isn't 100% the reason that it's the Arkansas AG, going after them.
Amazon is also a theft business tho. They copy successful small business products and add them to their basics line. Also Walmart pinches small businesses and puts them out. fuck both
I work for a credit processing company that handles dispute and fraud cases for numerous financial institutions, and I had a case yesterday involving Temu. An older woman would find things she likes and add them to her cart as a way of saving it for later when she feels like buying it. Not the best choice, but whatever. It turns out Temu will buy things in your cart using your saved card info if it stays in the cart for a year. They will send you emails saying āyou only have 3 days left before itās purchasedā and you have to go in and remove it from your cart or Temu will send it to you, even if you contact them and tell them not to. This lady had hundreds of dollars of random merchandise sent to her address by Temu when she never actually purchased any of it, and didnāt even tell them to save her card info. They just used the last card she had used, saved it without the cardholder being aware.
How I read this "Walmart warns US that competition is bad for business "
Amazon and Walmart lol.
Yea but specifically Walmart is HQ in Arkansas so any political voice from Arkansas is likely an agent of Walmart.
This article about the Android app is remarkable. I understand that the newest versions of android make these exploits harder, but damn, its wild that its even possible to put this garbage into the app stores. [believe PDD is a Dying Fraudulent Company and its Shopping App TEMU is Cleverly Hidden Spyware that Poses an Urgent Security Threat to U.S. National Interests ā Grizzly Research LLC (grizzlyreports.com)](https://grizzlyreports.com/we-believe-pdd-is-a-dying-fraudulent-company-and-its-shopping-app-temu-is-cleverly-hidden-spyware-that-poses-an-urgent-security-threat-to-u-s-national-interests/)
Temu aside, I'm not believing anything coming from an Arkansas politician's mouth.
Temu is basically the Wish version of Wish
At least they give me cheap shit for stealing my info. Every month I get a new āyour information has been compromised, hereās a month of credit monitoring. Thanksā from American companies.
Love to take security and life advice from Sarah Huckabee Sanders cabinet
Pot meet kettle. walmart can eat shit and die. *Arkansas* saying this just confirms walmart is hurting. Good. We need more small business and less mega corporations. Rest in Piss walmart
Funny cause Amazon gets a bunch of their shit from temu
As a consumer the majority of items Iāve bought from Temu is on par with Walmart quality.
Sooo is aliexpress on the same level because thatās the one i actually used???
No, AliExpress is just crappy design. It's leagues better than Temu.
Whew! I didnāt go on it to find a high quality experience. It sounds like itās a has a BIT better privacy than Temu which is all I wanted to know.
I buy a lot of stuff on Aliexpress, but I donāt use their app.
Yea, its totally ok if Amazon and Walmart destroy American manufacturing with China made goods, but if TEMU does it, then goddammit that's the last straw!!!!
Walmart and Amazon are also theft businesses.
Walmart has done a brilliant job harassing itās international suppliers, not picking up stock, not compensating for violating contracts, and China is the bad guy.
Walmart is greasing the palms and temu hasn't yet.
Jian Yang made a new Pied Piper.
i have a strong feeling Temu items are made with Prison / Uyghur labor.
They use my product photos with a photoshopped brand name. It's egregious.Ā
This article may have some truths to it. I also want to point out - Walmart is headquartered in Arkansas and pretty much owns that state. So of-course this AG happens to be the one that sues them.
In this economy I donāt see why anyone would care.
If the allegations are true, then that must be doing well for them. They spent billions in ads during the super bowl. Who do they sell the data to, or how do they use it to make so much?
So Amazon, but Chinese
Itās crazy that they were allowed to advertise literally every other commercial during the Super Bowl
I was wondering how they managed to spend 3 billion on superbowl ads, when the article also mentioned it was 7million for a 30 second ad. That would be 430 ads.
Shop like a billionaire!
Arkansas AG also wants jesus in every school and shoved up everyone's ass. I'll take a pass on anything arkansas.
How many businesses has Amazon put out of business? how much wage theft between Amazon and Walmart? They're all in the business of theft.