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FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Yesterday, I saw a Temu ad for something and I just wanted to open it to read the info and there were so many popups and “spin the wheel for a prize” and “enter your email here” and so on that I gave up and just looked for the info elsewhere. Never clicking on a Temu link again.

thermal_shock ,

one of the best decisions you’ll ever make, next to dns level blocking it on your network.

pantyhosewimp ,

Same, but a year ago.

Also, Temu has tried to take all the shopping search results from Bing/DDG. So those results are trash now.

MehBlah ,

I get their CAPTCHA where I have to slide the puzzle piece over to look at one of their ads. More than half the time I will do this and it will fail saying I didn’t do it right. So yeah temu has become a trash site.

Raiderkev ,

"So yeah temu has become a trash site. "

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/07c743df-a8d5-4a86-9579-6669fe858728.gif

dan ,
@dan@upvote.au avatar

That CAPTCHA isn’t specific to Temu.

panicnow ,

I generally think arstechnica.com does a decent job of being a non-garbage news site. I pay a couple bucks a month for the ad-free RSS feed. This story feels terrible to me. I don’t doubt a law suit has been filed, but I would expect some investigation by the reporter of the extra-ordinary claims of privilege escape the application is claimed to be capable of.

explore_broaden ,

Given that the headline says that it is a claim in a lawsuit, and the lawsuit is by a state attorney general and not some random nobody, I feel like they are being fairly reasonable.

Raploc ,

Yes because AG’s from repub states never ever file frivolous lawsuits that suit their own agenda.

panicnow ,

I would feel that it would be a reasonable if it was my local paper running the story. Arstechnica IS a primarily technical news site—I believe they should have a higher bar—otherwise they are just parroting a report and not providing useful (to me) news.

Bluefruit ,

Shocked i tell you. I am shocked.

No way an app would collect data it doesnt need. Preposterous.

Next thing you’ll tell me is that tiktok is doing the same thing!

SatansMaggotyCumFart ,

What about Meta and Google?

TeddE ,
@TeddE@lemmy.world avatar

Them too, but lukewarm by comparison.

SatansMaggotyCumFart ,

Why do you say that?

Ipodjockey ,
@Ipodjockey@lemmy.world avatar

Cause they are owned by American billionaires and as such are more ethical. /s

SatansMaggotyCumFart ,

Like Tim Apple, iPodJockey?

Ipodjockey ,
@Ipodjockey@lemmy.world avatar

I was given this nickname by an old guy at work that knew I was good with computers. Never actually owned an ipod lol.

TeddE ,
@TeddE@lemmy.world avatar

Emphasis on by comparison, as in “molten hot metal is cooler than the surface of the sun, by comparison”.

TikTok and Temu actively have code in them that would be considered a virus in other contexts. They exploit your system to gain more access than they should, violating the point of sandboxed access.

By comparison Meta and Google merely take advantage of user ignorance and apathy by making opting out frustrating - but still technically doable.

Both practices are terrible, but that’s not the same as saying they’re equally bad.

pop ,

By comparison Meta and Google merely take advantage of user ignorance and apathy by making opting out frustrating - but still technically doable.

This is simply just not true. Meta used an adversary-in-the-middle attack to decrypt Snapchat and other competitors traffic. Facebook, Apple, Twitter and Google have been intercepting traffic since before https/sandbox/anti-virus were the norm. Do you think they didn’t do anything malicious?

Install any Google app on Windows and it will install a task schedule and a always online background service to “check for updates” and downloads and runs their executable without any user consent. I wonder why no body had a problem with that. hmm…

malwarebytes.com/…/facebook-spied-on-snapchat-use…

Google runs it own operating system so they could technically do anything they so fucking please. You think Chinese Android variants are using exploits or just scooping data wholesale, because it can. But you think Google and Apple aren’t?

It’s showing your prejudice, bias and concern trolling more than anything.

TWeaK ,

Erm, WhatsApp would suggest otherwise.

WhatsApp was the vector for zero click access to a target’s phone from Israel’s weapons grade hacking Pegasus toolkit. They would send a video call, typically in the middle of the night, and with no input from the used they’d get full access. My personal belief is that they used functionality WhatsApp itself uses to access user data.

There was also an encrypted phone called ANOM, which had this trick calculator app with a hidden encrypted messager. “Made for criminals, by criminals”. Except, when the guy started his business he got investment from the FBI and Australian Federal Police to pay for the servers and some of the phones themselves. Basically every time it sent an encrypted message it sent a separate encrypted message to the ANOM servers. It’s entirely possible (perhaps even likely) that WhatsApp would do this also.

As for Google, they’re truly insidious. Lots of banks now require you to connect to Google captcha servers - they don’t give you the pictures, it’s just the back end, basically the tracking parts. Then there’s the controversy about them collecting location data when users have said no. They absolutely do collect data they shouldn’t.

TeddE ,
@TeddE@lemmy.world avatar

I’ll accept that maybe I’m giving Google a pass because of misplaced nostalgia, and while I personally have never used or liked Meta Facebook, I’ll concede that for a while it provided a service some people valued.

It’s still my opinion that Google and Facebook have a large percentage of engineers that personally try to make them a genuinely good service, at least moreso than compared to TikTok and Temu. But I’m willing to concede it’s not as much a practical difference as I would like.

demonsword ,
@demonsword@lemmy.world avatar

It’s still my opinion that Google and Facebook have a large percentage of engineers that personally try to make them a genuinely good service

Most of those people were sacked long ago. Today’s menu for those that remained is shareholder maximum value extraction sausage fest

kusivittula ,

it doesn’t count when it’s an american company doing it

Appoxo ,
@Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Like a worse AliExpress

Sam_Bass ,

The only thing annoying to me about temu is the cheesy popups for “free” gifts and percent-off wheel spinners.

Blackmist ,

And the product thumbnails that all look like sex toys.

Timecircleline ,

But if you install the app you get a free Bluetooth speaker!!

/Joking. Am I the only one who gets that ad constantly whenever I’m using a device that isn’t running ad blocks?

gearheart ,

deleted_by_author

    •
    BarbecueCowboy ,

    The ‘But, everyone is a bit evil’ argument is such bullshit, the concern here is obviously the extent of the surveillance, but no one can say you’re entirely wrong because the definition of that is so broad.

    It’s kind of technical, but there are comparisons on the report itself, even a fancy table, to other popular shopping apps and there are some legitimately troubling items. For anyone else, I’d recommend skipping direct to the source:

    grizzlyreports.com/we-believe-pdd-is-a-dying-frau…

    pop ,

    There wouldn’t be so much anti-china propaganda, if the popular companies didn’t do so much shit behind people’s back to drown out the good things coming out of China.

    I mean China is becoming a economic powerhouse, just make your companies not be backdoors until your influence and trust increase without competition. But nooooo, they have to do every worse thing other big tech companies do, but at a script-kiddie level.

    JCreazy , (edited )

    What is being done with the information?

    ripcord ,
    @ripcord@lemmy.world avatar

    At least svix.

    RozhkiNozhki ,
    @RozhkiNozhki@lemmy.world avatar

    Temu is absolute cancer in terms of business practices so no surprise here at all.

    jordanlund ,
    @jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

    Cancer in terms of, well, everything.

    SatansMaggotyCumFart ,

    But it’s cheap.

    Poiar ,

    Cheap cancer

    teegus ,

    If I wanted garbage I could get it for free from the roadside

    SatansMaggotyCumFart ,

    Why is Temu so popular then?

    teegus ,

    Because people get dopamine from shopping, even if it’s garbage. It causes enormous amounts of waste, because most of the crap isn’t used much if at all. They just make it look good on the product page.

    SatansMaggotyCumFart ,

    …and it’s cheap.

    cheese_greater ,

    Friendly reminder to ,check out Friendly Social Browser to get all these apps in a better experience and secure/private context

    paraphrand ,

    Shop like a billionaire targeted by state sponsored hackers.

    cybermass ,

    I am not even remotely surprised.

    Every day I hear a story about Chinese software being spyware.

    sunzu ,

    Have they ever heard of faceberg or sundar the creep?

    devilish666 ,

    Same like wish

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