• moondog [he/him]
    ·
    4 months ago

    So but fr is Temu safe/okay to use in :western-world-emoji: ? I've heard bad things about it like they're spying on you in the app and stuff but so does meta so shrug-outta-hecks

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      4 months ago

      It's structured as a behavioralist skinner box nightmare slot machine, so i would say no, it is not safe at all.

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]
          ·
          4 months ago

          In terms of trying to latch on to your brain's reward system and manipulate your behavior temu is the most aggressive website, or any other attempt, i've encountered outside actual casinos and maybe mid 10s mcdonalds.

      • moondog [he/him]
        ·
        4 months ago

        As in, you're saying it's unsafe because you can't reliably expect to deliver even half-decent quality products? Because that seems fair to me with how cheap the prices are. My mate ordered some cheap designed pins to put on his backpack which looked just fine, he quit the app because of le china spying porky-scared-flipped
        Idk what the behavioralist skinner box metaphor is supposed to imply.

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]
          ·
          4 months ago

          The app is constructed as a casino to exploit gambling addictions. It's really, realy, really aggressively trying to hijack your brain using gambling mechanics and every other dirty trick.

    • sappho [she/her]
      ·
      4 months ago

      I don't know about Temu but I use AliExpress frequently in lieu of getting the same item from a reseller on Amazon. Over the years I've had a couple of things just not show up ever, but that's rare - most of the time everything goes as expected. I tend to pick items that have photos from reviewers, and I don't buy stuff that goes into my mouth/otherwise enters my body.

      • SkingradGuard [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        4 months ago

        Honestly I've never had anything not arrive, everything came, sometimes slower than others. But lately they've been really good, especially if you buy from their "choice" shipped from AliExpress options

    • Barx [none/use name]
      ·
      4 months ago

      You can just use their website and be 100% sure that way.

      You can also make a separate phone profile to install it to assuming you're on Android.

      Generally speaking they're just collecting whatever info your phone will give to them and they're going to use it for marketing purposes. They have zero power to do anything to you outside of slightly more targeted marketing. The "spying" is things like making a list of what other apps you're running.