Temu, a popular online shopping platform, offers users a wide array of products ranging from fashion to electronics at competitive prices. The Temu app facilitates this by providing a mobile interface for easy browsing and purchasing, aiming to enhance the shopping experience with convenience and accessibility. Furthermore, the Temu app connects US consumers more directly with retailers in China, allowing Temu to offer lower prices than competitors because there are fewer middlemen between the consumer and the retailer.
However, privacy researchers have raised privacy and cybersecurity concerns about the Temu app due to its data collection practices. Privacy researchers have claimed that Temu’s software capabilities include invasive access to device functions and user data, far exceeding the norms for consumer shopping apps. This includes, but is not limited to, dynamic code execution that can alter the app’s behavior without user knowledge. Cybersecurity experts claim that the Temu app is configured in such a way that it makes it easy to inadvertently grant Temu permission to access private content on your phone that has nothing to do with shopping, such as the content of your personal text messages, emails, and photo albums.
Politico reported last year that Google suspended Temu’s Chinese sister platform Pinduoduo from its app store after it found malicious software in versions of the Chinese app. Politico also reported that Apple expressed similar concerns, and that Temu previously violated the company’s mandatory privacy rules. Apple said it had found that Temu misled people about how it uses their data. Such practices not only compromise personal privacy but also pose a broader threat by potentially making sensitive user data accessible to unauthorized parties.
This claim alleges Temu failed to fully disclose the extent of the data its mobile app collected on its users without their consent, in violation of federal and state privacy laws. If you created a Temu account and used the Temu mobile app, you may qualify for a claim under these federal and state laws of up to $5,000 or more depending on the law found to apply.