RedNote (Xiaohongshu)

Is RedNote safe?

RedNote is fine for browsing travel tips and make-up tutorials, but it is one of the weaker apps on our list for privacy. Anything you share with its Chinese user base ends up on servers in China, direct messages are not end-to-end encryptedEnd-to-end encryptionEncryption in which only the sender and the recipient can read a message. The company running the service cannot see its content.More in the glossary, and two governments acted against it in late 2025: Taiwan ordered a one-year block over fraud, and China's own internet regulator disciplined it over content. We score it 37/100, close to WeChat (36) and below TikTok (41).

RedNote is the name used abroad for Xiaohongshu ("little red book"), a Shanghai-based mix of Instagram and Pinterest that had nearly 300 million active users in January 2025, according to the South China Morning Post.

Where does RedNote store your data?

This changed after RedNote became popular abroad. In January 2025, when US users fearing a TikTok ban signed up in large numbers, there was one version of the app, run from Shanghai. That week RedNote also topped app charts in Britain, Canada, Ireland, Italy and several other countries, the South China Morning Post reported.

Accounts registered outside mainland China now come under a separate company, Rednote Technology Pte. Ltd. in Singapore, and a separate English policy, effective 5 August 2026. It says overseas users' data is stored in Singapore, Malaysia or the US. The exceptions are wide, though:

• posts, profiles and messages shared with Xiaohongshu users in China are transferred to servers in China
• payment, delivery and livestream data may be processed in China by group companies and contractors
• the two platforms are interoperable, so Chinese users see your public posts and can message you

You can check which policy applies to you in the app: under Me, then Settings, the terms at the bottom say rednote or Xiaohongshu.

China's laws allow authorities to demand data from companies based there. That is the concern several governments raise about Chinese apps. Chinese regulators have also faulted Xiaohongshu's own data collection: in November 2021 the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology named it among 38 apps that collected personal data beyond what they needed and gave them until 9 November to fix it. We found no evidence that RedNote has handed over foreign users' data, and the company says it follows data transfer rules.

What RedNote collects

Apple's privacy label lists identifiers used to track you across other apps, plus precise location, contacts, name, phone number, address, photos, audio, purchases and search history linked to you. The policy adds device data such as running processes, sensors and Bluetooth addresses, and says RedNote infers your interests, location, gender and age range to personalise content and ads, on and off the platform. With your consent it may process biometric data for risk control and verification.

Direct messages are not described as end-to-end encryptedEnd-to-end encryptionEncryption in which only the sender and the recipient can read a message. The company running the service cannot see its content.More in the glossary anywhere, and the policy says RedNote collects message content and metadata such as when a message was sent and read and who took part. Treat them as readable by the company.

Scams and the Taiwan block

On 4 December 2025 Taiwan's Ministry of the Interior ordered a one-year block of RedNote, which had about 3 million users there. It said the platform was linked to more than 1,700 fraud cases with losses of NT$247.7 million (about $7.9 million), and that investigators could not get data they were legally entitled to, "creating a de facto legal vacuum". Taiwan had already banned the app on government devices since 2019, and its National Security Bureau said the app failed all of its cybersecurity evaluations. These are the Taiwanese government's findings; RedNote has not been fined over them.

Texas bans RedNote on state government devices. In the US the app remains available, and it is not covered by the law that forced TikTok's sale.

Censorship and content rules

RedNote's company is regulated in Shanghai. In September 2025 the Cyberspace Administration of China held a "regulatory talk" with it and ordered rectification because its trending list was full of celebrity gossip and other "negative" content. Xiaohongshu said it accepted the criticism and set up a task force. Since foreign and Chinese users share one community, Chinese content rules shape what you see. For a teenager, the practical risks are strangers in comments and messages and scam offers, more than politics.

How to use RedNote more safely

1. Do not sync your phone contacts or connect other social accounts.
2. Deny precise location, microphone and contacts permissions unless you need them for a post.
3. Keep private matters out of RedNote direct messages, which are not end-to-end encryptedEnd-to-end encryptionEncryption in which only the sender and the recipient can read a message. The company running the service cannot see its content.More in the glossary.
4. Do not pay sellers or "investment" contacts off the platform, and ignore offers that move you to other chat apps.
5. If you are a journalist, activist or government employee, or have family in China, assume anything you post can be read in China.

How we scored it

Privacy (30) and scams (35) are the weakest factors: data flows to China and a government-documented fraud problem in Taiwan. Security (40) reflects messages without end-to-end encryptionEnd-to-end encryptionEncryption in which only the sender and the recipient can read a message. The company running the service cannot see its content.More in the glossary and Taiwan's failed security assessment. The regulatory record (40) rests on orders rather than fines: Taiwan's block, a 2021 Chinese order over excessive data collection and the 2025 content rectification order. Compare Pinterest for a similar idea-board app with a stronger record.