Mega-cheap Chinese shopping site Temu has gone hugely viral in the last couple of days thanks to a promotion it's running, one that some suggest is too good to be true.
The site is offering a 'free cash giveaway', one that promises to give you £50 ($63) every time you get a friend to sign up for a membership within 24 hours.
It basically means that people are incentivised to share the promotion around, and seemingly reap an unlimited amount of money in return, all paid directly to their PayPal account.
However, experts are are raising some concerns after it taking a closer look at the promotion's terms and conditions.
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For one thing, people have pointed out that the promotion's terms mean that Temu can 'cancel, change, suspend, or modify any aspect of the Program at any time, including, without limitation, the availability of any Rewards or other benefits without notice'. This means there's no guarantee that it'll last much longer.
There's also a section that makes it clear just what Temu gets out of this whole arrangement - and it's not just an influx of new members shopping on its app.
The relevant section reads as follows: 'Except to the extent prohibited by applicable law, participation in the Program and/or receipt or use of Rewards constitutes a Member’s consent for Sponsor to use and publish such Member’s photo, name likeness, voice, opinions, statements, biographical information, and/or hometown and state for promotional or advertising purposes in any media worldwide, now known or hereafter developed, in perpetuity without further review, notification, payment, or consideration.'
That's a really long list of data points that Temu is authorized to use the moment you take part in the promotion, and includes quite a lot of details that you probably wouldn't initially assume you're giving away. The fact that even your voice is included in the list is almost a little scary.
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Given that Temu can both use all of this as it likes, and can sell the data on to third parties without needing to consult you, you're arguably giving the company carte blanche to do what it wants.
Unsurprisingly, this has led to a bit of a divide on social media - take to X, for example, and search for 'Temu' and you'll be greeted by two angles. On the one hand, there are people looking for others to sign up using their link, eager to secure their money. On the other, there are those who hate the whole thing, are tired of the ads for it, and can't believe anyone would sell all their data for the chance at £50 ($63).