If it seems too good to be true…

Seems everyone’s talking about Temu lately, an online shopping app full of deals that seem too good to be true. You’ll find a variety of heavily discounted products, from air fryers to wireless Lenovo earbuds ($8.98), computer keyboards ($15) to clothes ($1.69 for five pairs of socks). All of which includes “free shipping”.

It’s no wonder Temu is the most popular shopping app in the U.S., behind only Amazon. But most of us know very little about the app’s origins. Like TikTok, Turbo VPN and PinDuoDuo, it’s directly tied to Communist China.

Where did Temu come from?
Temu (pronounced “tee-moo”) is supposedly based in Boston, Massachusetts, and owned by PDD Holdings Inc., but PDD is headquartered in Shanghai, China. PDD also owns the e-commerce platform Pinduoduo headquartered in Communist China as well.

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has the following alert on its website: “It appears Temu is an online marketplace and the company name is WhaleCo, Inc. which is registered in Massachusetts as a Foriegn Corporation through Delaware”.

Over 50 million Americans have downloaded Temu since it launched state-side in September 2022. You might remember its expensive Super Bowl ads promising to let you “shop like a billionaire.” Internet searches for terms like “Is Temu legit” surged once Americans saw just how low the prices are. Not surprisingly, you get what you pay for.

What you need to know before using Temu
First, you’re buying goods directly from manufacturers in China and other parts of the world. That’s why shipping times are often much longer than on sites like Amazon. You might get your stuff in a week, but it could be more like 12 days.

For the most part, the prices are low because the products are cheap. The pictures of what you see advertised may not be what you get. Online reviewers seem to agree – You get what you pay for and if the price seems too good to be true, it probably is.

But that’s not the worst of it. As you shop, Temu collects lots of information.
Temu isn’t unique in the amount info it wants to capture from you. Most apps out there want as much as you’ll give up. But considering its ties to Communist China, the permissions seem even more frightening.

Temu collects your name, address, and phone number and the details you enter, like your birthday, photo, and social media profiles. Your phone or computer’s operating system and version, IP address, GPS location (if you allowed it), and browsing data. They also gather more about you from third party sources, including Temu sellers, public records, social media, data brokers, credit bureaus, and marketing partners.

Temu’s parent company, PDD | Pinduoduo, was suspended on the Google App store last month after malware was found in versions of the software.

I firmly believe that all apps phoning home to communist China should be banned by our government – TikTok included. We simply don’t have enough knowledge about what these apps could be doing with our personal data.