The offers on the popular shopping platform Temu are often too good to be true. So if you’re wondering if there’s a catch and how reputable and safe Temu is, you’ve come to the right place. Read on to learn more about Temu’s safety standards and data-protection risks. Also discover what you should keep in mind when shopping on Temu and how you can strengthen your protection when shopping online with Avira Secure Browser.
What is Temu and how does it work?
The extremely popular and rapidly growing online shopping platform Temu offers pretty much everything your heart could ever desire. From electronics and household appliances to clothing and jewelry as well as home and garden furnishings, you can buy many items for knock-down prices on the Temu app and website — especially if you use Temu frequently. That’s because the company rewards its customers for various actions with discounts, credits, vouchers, or free products. Among other things, Temu uses a gamified rewards feature where mini-games, such as a wheel of fortune or Fishland, are used primarily in the app to give customers an additional incentive to stay in the app longer. The more time customers spend in the app, the easier it is for Temu to acquire advertising customers.
Another big attraction for Temu is its offer of free shipping and free returns. Compared to other online marketplaces, like AliExpress, Amazon, and Etsy, the various retailers or stores don’t have their own terms and conditions or shipping and returns policies — Temu handles payment, shipping, and customer service centrally.
What is Temu and why is it so cheap?
Temu was founded in Boston in 2022 as a subsidiary of the Chinese company PDD Holdings to provide US customers with access to products from China. Since 2023, the online retailer’s services have also been available in many European countries. PDD Holdings also owns Pinduoduo, Temu’s Chinese sister company. After spyware was found in the Pinduoduo app in 2023, Google removed it from the Play Store — and Temu has since also faced skepticism.
Most sellers on Temu are Asian manufacturers, but Temu is now also opening up to European retailers. Products can be offered at very low prices thanks primarily to low production costs in China and short supply chains. With goods shipped directly from manufacturers to end customers, this eliminates middlemen and avoids the need for Temu to operate large warehouses. The company therefore only acts as an intermediary between sellers and buyers. Temu also benefits from the fact that no customs duties are levied in the European Union on shipments with a material value of less than €150 (around $175). Import sales tax is also already included in the price of the products.
Why has Temu faced criticism?
Temu is as successful as it is controversial. That’s because, unsurprisingly, you only get what you pay for in terms of quality and electronic devices in particular sometimes have serious safety defects. In addition, products frequently lack a manufacturer’s label or European test seal, the CE mark, which is mandatory for many devices in the EU. It’s also not uncommon for products to be poorly packaged, so they sometimes arrive damaged.
In addition to product safety, critics of Temu complain that the sometimes poor quality of the products promotes a throwaway culture, that long-distance transport by air is unsustainable, and that working conditions in the Chinese factories are questionable. On top of that, Temu is criticized for its use of manipulative techniques that nudge people to make impulse buys, known as dark patterns, in the form of unclear discounts, artificially short promotional periods, and allegedly very low remaining stocks. The potentially addictive gamification approach with the reward system is also repeatedly criticized.
Additionally, skeptics repeatedly raise concerns about Temu’s security and data-protection standards, which we’ll discuss in more detail below.
How safe is it to buy from Temu?
Let’s get one thing out of the way first: Temu is not a fake shop, as some assume, but a reputable and legitimate online marketplace that’s also safer than many think. That’s because on a technical level, Temu has comparable security standards and certifications to other online shopping platforms. Let’s explore some of its plus points.
Temu Buyer Protection: Users are entitled to a full refund within 90 days of purchase. This applies to items that don’t match the description or photos, which arrived damaged or late, could not be delivered, or were lost in transit. However, Temu users are divided on how well this works.
Encrypted data transfer: Temu uses HTTPS and a TLS/SSL certificate for online transactions.
Payment security: Temu has appropriate certifications such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), Visa Secure, Mastercard Identity Check, American Express SafeKey, ProtectBuy, JCB J/Secure, and TrustedSite.
Bug bounty program: Temu participates in the Bug Bounty Program by HackerOne, which offers rewards to the cybersecurity community for the successful discovery and remediation of potential security vulnerabilities.
Anti-phishing: As a member of the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), Temu claims to actively combat phishing and identity theft.
Blue checkmarks for verified brands: Temu marks officially verified brands with a blue check mark.
Security and data-protection tips: Temu provides many tips on protecting sensitive data, account security, shopping safely on Temu as well as detecting and avoiding fraud. Temu also allows you to report suspicious activity.
Multi-factor authentication (MFA): With optional two-factor authentication (2FA), Temu offers additional verification to protect against unauthorized account access.
How safe is the Temu app?
The Temu app is Mobile Application Security Assessment (MASA) certified. This certificate is awarded by the independent testing organization DEKRA to apps that meet certain security requirements.
There is some disagreement regarding app permissions. It’s often claimed that the app also requires access permissions that are not absolutely necessary for the functionality of the app. According to the company itself, the Temu app only requires a minimal number of permissions. Among them, the camera can’t be accessed without the user’s permission (iOS) and the following features cannot be accessed at all: Camera (Android), microphone, Bluetooth, photos, calendar, contacts, clipboard, and location (except in the Middle East). The Temu app therefore accesses fewer functions than some other shopping apps.
Despite all of the above, some experts fear that the Temu app could secretly spy on data. The National Testing Institute for Cybersecurity (NTC) in Switzerland found, during its analysis of the Temu app, that it allows dynamic code reloading and can flexibly adapt its functionality without requiring active updates by the user. Even though there’s no evidence of unauthorized surveillance or malicious activity, the Swiss experts recommend ordering through the Temu website rather than the Temu app as a precaution.
What are Temu’s data-protection risks?
Contrary to some reports on the internet, Temu hasn’t yet been involved in any serious data-protection or security breaches. According to Temu itself, only essential information is collected, personal data is never sold, and strict data-protection regulations are followed, as listed on Temu’s website.
In addition, Temu uses cookies and other tracking technologies to gather user data, but no more than many other shopping platforms do. The same applies to the sharing of data, which is common practice among large online marketplaces. The Temu website states that the company shares personal information with, among others, third-party advertising, marketing, and analytics companies for interest-based advertising and analytics purposes.
Although Temu has a Chinese parent company, European data-protection laws such as the GDPR apply for EU customers. However, there are concerns, although no evidence, that Chinese authorities could gain access to user data under Chinese legislation.
Temu strives to allay such concerns and gain consumer trust. It’s also working hard to improve transparency, quality assurance, and data protection. And its efforts seem to be paying off: In February 2025, Temu was awarded a “good” rating by the leading German consumer testing organization Stiftung Warentest in the categories of “data handling”, ”privacy policy”, and “shopping process”. The returns experience was even rated “very good” and the products purchased from Temu were considered “usable and as described”.
What’s the risk of data theft and fraud on Temu?
In addition to the aforementioned data-protection concerns, there are security risks that are only indirectly related to Temu and are not the company’s responsibility. Scammers are increasingly taking advantage of the online platform’s popularity and vast number of users to commit data theft on behalf of Temu or its shipping partners. They often use fake emails, text messages, and ads containing malware or malicious links to typically forward users to fake websites where they are tricked into entering sensitive data.
Temu says that it never asks its users to open attachments in order-confirmation emails and advises users not to click on links if they’re in doubt, but to go directly to the website. Suspicious emails can be forwarded to reportphishing@temu.com.
Here are some more tips for safer shopping at Temu.
Things to watch out for when using Temu
Ultimately, what applies to Temu also applies to many other shopping platforms: If you take a few precautions and are aware of certain risks, you can shop there relatively safely.
- Keep in mind that product quality and safety might not meet your expectations and that customs fees may apply to orders over €150 (around $175). Also be prepared for longer delivery times.
- Check out reviews on Temu before ordering to minimize the risk of nasty surprises. However, alarm bells should be ringing if there are too many top ratings, as these could be fake.
- When purchasing via the Temu website, make sure that you are really on the Temu website and not on some scammer’s fake website.
- Make sure that emails from Temu are not a phishing attack and, if unsure, check the sender’s email domain. If you don’t see temu.com, temuemail.com, temumail.com, temuofficial.com, or temufavor.com, the email is not from Temu and is likely to be a scam.
- Check your credit card statements and bank statements regularly for suspicious charges.
- Make payments only through the Temu platform.
- If you receive a delivery from Temu even though you haven’t ordered anything, it could be a brushing scam. If this happens to you, follow the steps outlined in our article.
Additional safety steps when buying from Temu
- When shopping on the Temu website, use a browser with integrated security and privacy features like Avira Secure Browser. Not only can you block malicious websites and phishing attempts, as well as ads and tracking, but you can also use many other features to increase your online privacy.
- Protect your Temu account (and other online accounts) with a strong password. Avira Secure Browser’s built-in password manager can help you, making it a breeze to generate and store complex passwords.
- Use two-factor authentication to strengthen your Temu account’s protection against unauthorized access.
- Use powerful antivirus protection, like Avira Free Security, to protect yourself from malware and other online threats. You can easily download the free all-in-one solution from the Security & Privacy Center in Avira Secure Browser.
