ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (WHAT THE TECH?) — Two apps at the top of the app store charts – DeepSeek and RedNote – are being looked for alleged national security risks.

You may have one, or both on your phone right now, and national security officials allege they may be more dangerous than TikTok ever was.

RedNote is a TikTok alternative. Popular in China, the app is used to upload and view funny video clips. When TikTok stopped working amid the ban, milllions downloaded it.

DeepSeek, if you haven’t heard, is an AI engine more powerful than ChatGPT. It’s capable of doing deep dives into research, building codes, and creating presentations.

Both of these apps share a lot of information with Chinese companies. It says so right in the Terms of Service and Privacy Policies. Lawmakers are working now to ban it in the U.S.

One danger is that user information shared with China can be used by state-sponsored actors in a cyber attack.

What are the other options? Popular creators on TikTok are using RedNote. But you can still find them on TikTok and Instagram.

What to use instead of DeepSeek? There are several AI engine options of course. Perplexity was recently updated to include the same deep search tools offered by DeepSeek.

DeepSeek and RedNote collect a massive amount of personal data including browsing histories, locations, and device details. It’s recommended that both of these apps be deleted and use something else.

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