Since technology has implemented new practices for its users to buy products in an easier and simpler way with applications such as Amazon , eBay , Temu, among others, it has also permeated unfair practices against them. One of them is to give consent to mobile applications to profit from your information.
In recent months, the Temu application has become popular in Mexico , being direct competition from virtual stores such as Amazon or MercadoLibre; However, the company Grizzly Research has reported that its users could be in danger of “information theft.” This app is available on the App Store (iOs) and Play Store ( Android ).
According to the newspaper Milenio , “we have strong suspicions that Temu is already, or has the intention of illegally selling, stolen data from clients in Western countries to support a business model that would otherwise be doomed to failure.”
He added: “Temu is a notoriously bad actor in his industry. “We see rampant user manipulation, chain letter-like affinity scams to generate signups, and generally the most aggressive and questionable techniques to manipulate large numbers of people into installing the app.”
In their terms and conditions sections of these e-commerce apps, they could be allowing their information to be used not only for commercial purposes, but also for espionage. This is reported by the company IQSEC (Innovation in Cybersecurity and Digital Identity, for its acronym in English).
According to IQSEC, identity theft, loss of personal and even financial data are some of the most common problems for users. And not only that, this could lead to reputational and, of course, legal problems for e-commerce companies .
Temu uses the users’ camera to facilitate the search for images or when a photo is uploaded and the app searches its registry for similar products.
And, according to experts, many of the permissions of applications like Temu do not appear in their source code. Once a user grants permission to the files, it could be collecting your information remotely; although this action was already rejected by the company itself through its public relations agency, Tonka Communications.
“Under no circumstances do they sell data of any kind. Unfortunately, there are ads that are being published on social networks and through Google .” According to Temu, this would be done by certain malicious users “to redirect to false pages, where we believe fraud crimes are being committed,” the company said.
