Worries have emerged regarding the privacy practices of the well – known Chinese social platform “Xiaohongshu”, on which an increasing number of users are engaging with content about beauty, travel, food, and lifestyle.
As reported by the Chinese media outlet “Jiu Pai News”, a Xiaohongshu user using an Android device was shocked to find that within the past 30 days, the platform had accessed sensitive data more than 92,000 times. Alarmingly, 71,000 of these accesses were related to location information. On March 25th alone, Xiaohongshu accessed the user’s location data over 2,100 times, even during periods when the user was not using the app, such as in the late – night hours.
Another user had a similar experience, stating that Xiaohongshu accessed nearly 50,000 pieces of data within 30 days, with 46,000 of them being location data. In a remarkable disclosure, within one minute, the app carried out a series of continuous actions. These included 15 device status checks, 7 accesses to photos and videos, 7 scans of audio files, and 1 clipboard view. These data access patterns not only reveal the platform’s frequent background operations but also cause significant worry among users about the possible improper use of their personal information.
It’s worth noting that these background activities of Xiaohongshu are not new findings. Discussions about this issue go back to July 2024. A large number of users expressed their concerns on social media platforms, and at one time, the number of related posts exceeded 70,000. Many iOS users reported that even when the app was closed, a blue location icon would still be visible at the top of the screen, suggesting that the app was still accessing location data.
In response to these claims, “Jiu Pai News” contacted Xiaohongshu’s official customer service for an explanation. The service team said that these actions were due to the platform’s “Nearby” feature, which requires periodic access to location data when the relevant permissions are enabled. They stressed that the platform does not violate user privacy. However, this explanation has not fully eased users’ concerns. Many users believe that apps should only access location data when they are in active use and find it hard to accept such extensive data collection during inactive periods. Suggestions include changing Xiaohongshu’s permission settings to “Ask When in Use” or completely disabling sensitive permissions in case of abnormal activities.
