Reddit

Is Reddit safe?

For adults who want to read and post without using their real name, Reddit is a fair choice, and it collects less than Meta's apps. Three things hold its score down. Everything you post in public is licensed to AI companies. Safety depends heavily on volunteer moderators. And the UK's privacy regulator found in February 2026 that Reddit let children in without any age check. We score it 49/100, above X (37) and below Discord (56).

Anonymous, but not invisible

Reddit runs on usernames, not real names, and that is its main privacy advantage. Apple's App Store label lists only identifiers and usage data as used to track you across other companies' apps and websites. Reddit declares everything else it collects (purchases, coarse location, email, search history, your posts) as not linked to your identity. On Android, Reddit's Google Play form says it shares app interactions and search history with other companies for analytics and advertising.

Pseudonymity has limits. Reddit holds your email, IP address and device data, and a long post history about your city, job and family can identify you as well as a name. Use a separate account for anything you would not want tied to your main one.

Your posts are training AI

Since 2024 Reddit has sold access to its content. Its stock market prospectus says that in January 2024 it signed data licensing deals worth $203 million over two to three years. In May 2024 OpenAI announced it would use Reddit's Data API to bring Reddit content into ChatGPT. In 2025 Reddit booked $140 million of "other revenue", mostly content licensing, on top of $2.06 billion from ads.

The same prospectus disclosed that on 14 March 2024 the FTC opened a non-public inquiry into Reddit's licensing of user content for AI training. Reddit said it had done nothing unfair or deceptive, and the inquiry no longer appears in its 2025 annual report. No FTC action has been announced.

For you, the practical point is simple: there is no setting to keep public posts and comments out of these deals. If you would not want a sentence in an AI model's training data, do not post it publicly.

The 2023 breach

On 5 February 2023 attackers sent Reddit staff a fake version of the company's intranet login page and captured one employee's password and second-factor code. They reached internal documents, code and business dashboards. Reddit said there was no sign its main production systems, which hold most user data, were breached. In June 2023 the BlackCat ransomware gang claimed it had taken 80 GB of data and demanded $4.5 million, according to BleepingComputer. No user password database has been reported leaked.

Reddit chats are encrypted in transit but not end to end, so Reddit can read them. Turn on two-factor authenticationTwo-factor authenticationSigning in with a second proof of identity on top of your password, such as a code from an app, a security key or a passkey.More in the glossary with an authenticator app.

Children and harmful content

Reddit's terms bar under-13s, but on 24 February 2026 the ICO found that Reddit had no measures to check anyone's age until July 2025, so it was processing young children's data without a lawful basis. It also had not assessed risks to children before January 2025. The £14.47 million fine is the ICO's largest for a children's privacy failure. Reddit says the ruling would force it to collect more data on every UK user and has appealed. The regulator also said Reddit's self-declared age check is easy to bypass.

Moderation is the other weak point. Most communities are run by unpaid volunteer moderators, so standards vary widely. Adult communities sit a click away from general ones, which is why the App Store rates Reddit 18+. Spam and scam links still slip through where moderators are stretched, so treat unsolicited private messages with offers as suspect.

How to use Reddit more safely

1. Keep mature content switched off on any account a teenager uses.
2. Turn off ad personalisation in your account's privacy settings.
3. Never move a conversation from Reddit to WhatsApp or Telegram with someone selling something or offering investments.
4. Delete old posts that reveal where you live or work.
5. Request a copy of your data once a year to see what Reddit holds.

How we scored it

Privacy (45) is better than at Facebook because tracking is narrower and no real name is needed, but AI licensing of public posts keeps it low. Scams and harmful content (40) is the weakest factor, reflecting volunteer moderation and the ICO's age-check findings. The regulatory record (50) rests on one large fine, still under appeal.