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What is Tea? The viral women-only app hit by massive data breach; it lets women review men
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Tea, an app made to help women share information about men they date, has been breached. The company confirmed on Friday that thousands of user images were exposed online.
Tea said around 72,000 images were leaked. This includes 13,000 images of selfies or selfies with photo IDs that users submitted during account verification. Another 59,000 images came from posts, comments, and direct messages that were publicly viewable in the app. These were also accessed without permission, according to a Tea spokesperson.
The company said that email addresses and phone numbers were not accessed. The breach affects only users who signed up before February 2024.
“Tea has engaged third-party cybersecurity experts and are working around the clock to secure its systems,” the company said in a statement, as cited by news agency Associated Press. “At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that additional user data was affected. Protecting tea users’ privacy and data is their highest priority.”
Tea is an app where women can share information about men they might meet on other dating platforms like Tinder or Bumble. The app allows users to check if the person they are planning to meet is safe, real, and not already in a relationship.
“Tea is a must-have app, helping women avoid red flags before the first date with dating advice, and showing them who’s really behind the profile of the person they’re dating,” the app’s store description says.
The website 404 Media first reported the breach. It said that users on 4Chan found an exposed database that “allowed anyone to access the material” from Tea.
“While reporting this story, a URL the 4chan user posted included a voluminous list of specific attachments associated with the Tea app. 404 Media saw this list of files. In the last hour or so, that page was locked down, and now returns a ‘Permission denied’ error,” 404 Media said.
Tea recently said in an Instagram post that the app now has 4 million users.
What is Tea app?
Tea Dating Advice is a women-only platform where users can anonymously share information about men they are dating, according to Sky News.According to its website, the app was created to help women date more safely. It includes tools like AI-powered reverse image searches to detect fake profile photos, phone number lookups to check for possible hidden marriages, background checks for criminal records, and a map showing registered sex offenders.
Tea’s website boasts a “sisterhood” of more than 1.6 million women who can share dating advice and experiences anonymously on the platform, news agency AFP reported.
