Is it safe?
From Guides, in the HARD wiki · Updated
A page for each app people ask about: is it safe, in one line, then the real risks, the settings to change and when not to use it.
Every fact comes from a primary source: the company’s own privacy policy and help pages, its app store listing, regulators and courts. Where something you’ll read elsewhere couldn’t be confirmed, the page says so.
Shopping apps
| App | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Temu | Safe to use with care | Temu is a real shop that refunds most problems, but regulators have fined it over unsafe listings and data handling, so buy carefully. |
| AliExpress | Safe to use with care | AliExpress is a real marketplace with buyer protection, but the EU fined it €550 million for not doing enough about illegal and counterfeit products. |
| Shein | Safe to use with care | Shein is a real shop with a 30-day return policy, but it has a record of a large breach and privacy fines, and some listings break the rules. |
| TikTok Shop | Safe to use with care | Buying through TikTok Shop’s own checkout comes with returns and a 90-day money-back guarantee; links that take you outside the app do not. |
| DHgate | Be careful | DHgate is a real wholesale marketplace with refunds, but the US government lists it as a notorious market for counterfeits, and your data is stored in China. |
Second-hand marketplaces
| App | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Depop | Safe to use with care | Depop is a real marketplace that refunds problem orders, but only if you pay with the Buy button, never directly to a seller. |
| Mercari | Safe to use with care | Mercari holds your payment until you confirm the item, but you must check it and report problems within 72 hours of delivery. |
| Poshmark | Safe to use with care | Poshmark holds your payment until you accept the order, but you have only 3 days after delivery to report a problem. |
Paying people
| App | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Cash App | Safe to use with care | Cash App is a real, regulated service, but payments are instant, usually can’t be cancelled, and there is no purchase protection when you pay people. |
| Zelle | Safe to use with care | Zelle is fine for paying people you know, but payments can’t be reversed and Zelle offers no purchase protection, so never use it with strangers. |
| Venmo | Safe to use with care | Venmo is fine with friends, but new accounts’ payments can be public by default, and only payments tagged as goods and services get Purchase Protection. |
| PayPal | Safe to use | PayPal is a long-established service, and checkout and Goods and Services payments get Purchase Protection; Friends and Family payments don’t, so never use them with strangers. |
Messaging
| App | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Telegram | Safe to use with care | Telegram is not end-to-end encrypted by default, groups never are, and scammers use it heavily, so don’t treat ordinary chats as private from Telegram. |
| Safe to use with care | Personal chats and calls are end-to-end encrypted by default, but scammers use WhatsApp heavily and Meta still gets data about how you use it. |
Social video
| App | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| TikTok | Safe to use with care | TikTok is a mainstream app with a long record of fines over children’s data; tighten the settings and use Family Pairing for teens. |
| CapCut | Safe to use with care | A mainstream ByteDance video editor with no regulator fines HARD could find; use official app stores and mind the licence over content you submit. |
AI chatbots
| App | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Safe to use with care | A mainstream, well-run service, but your chats can train its models and shape ads unless you change settings, so keep sensitive details out. |
| Character.AI | Be careful | It’s in bankruptcy and may be sold or shut down, it has been sued over teen deaths, and under-18s can no longer chat with characters. |
| DeepSeek | Be careful | The app stores your chats on servers in China, and regulators in Italy, South Korea and Germany have acted over how it handles your data. |
Computer clean-up
| App | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| CCleaner | Safe to use with care | The official CCleaner is genuine software, but get it only from ccleaner.com, decline extra offers when installing, and know Windows can free space itself. |
How HARD checks an app
The verdict is only as strong as the record supports. HARD reads the app’s privacy policy and app store label, looks for fines, orders and lawsuits on regulators’ and courts’ own pages, checks its breaches against Have I Been Pwned and its flaws against CISA’s list of flaws used in attacks, and collects the scams the company or a regulator has warned about. Lawsuits are described as allegations until a court decides.
Wondering about a program on a Mac instead? The Mac apps guide covers 95 of them: who makes each one and how to tell the real app from a fake.