Temu whose products are flooding into Australia is sharing is sharing information on locals who use their trading site, with a multitude of International Companies including marketing Companies and tax authorities with most buyers on the popular Chinese website not realising what they are signing up for.

The Chinese online retailer recently moved to change their privacy conditions that allows personal information to be handed over to overseas.

According to Temu’s latest privacy policy update the personal information of Australian customers will be entrusted to both domestic and international third-party companies for what is being described as “efficient service provision.”

Among the organisations who will get access to details on a Temu customer will be payment and finance Companies, advertising and analytics partners who are scooping up data in Australia and then selling it to brands looking to grow their online presence.

These third-party advertising, marketing, and analytics companies are clearly described in Temu’s Cookie and Similar Technologies Policy.

In contrast to the earlier policy, where the only mandatory consent was for overseas remittance information, the revised version extends the scope of entrusted data to include personal customs codes, transaction amounts, addresses, phone numbers, text messages, device information, age verification IDs and data collected during service usage.

This information is now being shared with 27 external companies across six countries, including Korea, Singapore, Japan, Australia, the United States and Indonesia.

There was no mention of China the home Country of Temu where the Communist Government has access to all information captured by Chinese Companies.

Beyond data entrusted for processing, Temu has also expanded the list of third-party recipients who can directly receive user data.

Your data can also be handed over to the Australian Tax Office who often track consumers expenditure in an effort to check whether Australian residents are spending more than they earn.

In July last year, another Chinese e-commerce platform, AliExpress, that operates into Australia was fined US$1.32 million by the Personal Information Protection Commission in Korea for leaking customer data to approximately 180,000 overseas vendors without prior notification.

Temu has faced similar allegations regarding weak data protection measures but has so far avoided enforcement action in multiple Countries.

Temu dress up the capture and sale of data claiming it’s being captured for order fulfillment, purposes and as such this allows them to share your personal information.

They also share information with ‘professional advisors, authorities, and regulators such as lawyers, auditors, bankers and insurers, in response to legal processes such as those issued by courts or authorities in Australia, and with other parties in order to enforce our agreements or policies, protect the rights, property and safety of Temu, users and others, and to detect, prevent and address actual or suspected fraud, violations of Temu’s Terms of Use, other illegal activities, security issues or when it’s required by law.

If users take time to read the new Temu terms & conditions they will find a clause that states ‘Please note that, in using our Services, we may share personal information to others’.

The parties may be located in a country outside of your jurisdiction, including in U.S. and the countries in which the merchandise partners or users may be located.

Unless we have your consent, or an exception under the applicable laws apply, we will only share or disclose your personal information to overseas recipients where we have taken reasonable steps to ensure that the overseas recipient does not breach the applicable laws in relation to your personal information.

Most people don’t read a trader’s terms & conditions.