The country’s cyber watchdog has refused to engage on the question of whether popular Chinese online shopping site Temu might be a threat. 

In the US, lawmakers have sought an FBI briefing over whether Temu is a risk to national security and Americans’ personal data. 

In a letter, they say Temu is linked to the Chinese Communist Party, citing US media reports. 

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) disregarded RNZ’s direct questions about whether people should be worried about Temu. 

It stuck instead to general comments such as that with foreign apps, foreign laws on data-gathering might apply, though if companies operated here they had to meet local legal and privacy requirements. 

New Zealanders should “be cautious about the privacy and security implications when installing any application”, it said. 

Temu's website. Image / RNZ 

RNZ has also approached Temu for comment. 

The US House of Representatives’ move is the latest in a years-long series of alarms being raised, and trade constraints or bans imposed on China-owned technology companies, on the grounds of a possible national security threat. 

In a report last year, a federal commission said Temu’s parent company Pinduoduo - a popular shopping site inside China - could spy on users. 

It could “bypass user security permissions and access private messages, change settings, view data from other apps, and prevent uninstallation”. 

Google suspended the Pinduoduo app in March last year over security concerns. 

“Due to the above cited incidents and many others, we are concerned about the protection of Americans’ data,” said the letter from the US permanent select committee on intelligence in late September. 

“We have concerns that the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] has undertaken yet another attempt to exploit the democracy, free market principles, and the personal and economic data of the United States.” 

Offshore online retailers Temu and AliExpress appear to have been popular in New Zealand despite volatile consumer spending. 

-Phil Pennington, RNZ