Online retailer Temu has until the end of this week to respond to Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s consumer protection lawsuit in Cleburne County Court.
Temu is an online shopping platform similar to Amazon or Walmart.com. In 2023, Temu was reported to be the most widely downloaded app in the U.S., and its multibillion-dollar marketing campaign — which included a Super Bowl ad in 2024 — contributed to its success.
But the Chinese-based tech giant has drawn criticism from security and privacy experts who are concerned that Temu does not value users’ privacy or protect sensitive information.
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin sued Temu in 2024, alleging Temu uses bargain pricing as a lure so the company can secretly harvest users’ private information. The lawsuit alleges Temu’s phone app is able to access users’ precise locations as well as other installed apps, online accounts, microphones, and cameras. The platform can then funnel that sensitive information to computer servers that are subject to Chinese laws.
The A.G.’s lawsuit also alleges that the Temu app is able to bypass phone security systems, potentially granting Temu access to a user’s private messages.
The Arkansas Attorney General’s office says all of this is unconscionable under the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, which carries a penalty of $10,000 per violation.
Temu’s attorneys asked the judge presiding over the case to dismiss the lawsuit, but the judge presiding over the case denied that motion to dismiss and gave Temu’s attorneys until August 28 to respond to Attorney General’s lawsuit.
The attorney general’s lawsuit against Temu is important, because his arguments in the case are very similar to points the A.G.’s team has made in its separate lawsuits against TikTok — another widely popular internet platform owned by a Chinese company.
Family Council is not aware of any attorney general in America who is doing more to hold tech companies accountable than Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin.
As we always say, tech companies are more than just phone apps and websites. These are multibillion-dollar businesses, and the people who operate them have a responsibility to protect the people who use their platforms.
We appreciate Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office for continuing to pursue these cases so seriously in court.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
