More and more people are using this application to get good deals, but it is strongly recommended to uninstall it.
Smartphones are part of our daily lives and it would be difficult to do without them for many activities. Moreover, 87% of French people indicated that they would own a smartphone in 2022, according to the Digital Barometer published in 2023. Users can download numerous applications that improve their lifestyle: streaming platforms, meal delivery and ordering apps. VTC or taxi or shopping…
But you have to be careful about which ones you install in order to protect your privacy and avoid having your data or, worse, your banking credentials stolen. You still need to know which ones are the most secure to protect yourself from hacker attacks and thus avoid downloading spyware or a virus by mistake. Problematic applications are sometimes spotted by experts after having been authorized on the App Store and the Play Store and, precisely, specialists are issuing a call for vigilance regarding an app that many people have been using lately.
The alert was launched by the National Test Institute for Cybersecurity (NTC), a Swiss body. In a report, she explains that the application of Temu, the Chinese online sales platform, has “unusual behavior on two specific points”. First of all, it is capable of modifying its behavior completely autonomously, without the owner of the smartphone on which it is installed realizing it or validating the changes. Indeed, the functions of the program and its content can change without going through an update. Another problem: in different places in the app there are additional layers of encryption, which can strengthen data protection, but also “be potentially used to conceal unwanted data transfers”. Note that Temu was the most downloaded application in France in 2024 (Sensor Tower data).
No critical security breaches and no evidence of espionage were detected. However, the NTC indicates that due to these two points, it is not possible to say with certainty that the application does not pose a risk to the user’s privacy or the security of the smartphone. While waiting for this to be clarified, the organization invites Temu to be uninstalled, already criticized for selling objects deemed dangerous, because they do not always correspond to European safety standards. Clearly, if you want to make purchases on it, it is better not to download the application and instead go through the site.
Tech
