Tea Dating App Confirms Breach, 72,000 Images Exposed on 4chan

The female dating advice app Tea surged to the top of the Apple App Store this week and experienced a major security breach that resulted in approximately 72,000 user images being exposed on the anonymous online message board, 4chan.

The Details: Tea confirmed unauthorized access to one of its systems, leading to the exposure of 13,000 images of selfies and photo IDs submitted during account verification; and 59,000 public images from posts, comments, and direct messages. The company said these images were part of a "legacy data system" containing data from over two years ago and claimed that no current or additional user data has been affected. The breach was first reported on Reddit and 404 Media.

For Context: The Tea app aims to provide women a platform to anonymously report feedback on men they've encountered in the dating pool, with the goal of ensuring safety. It requires users to verify their identities with selfies or IDs. The app’s newfound popularity has ignited widespread debate about its effectiveness or whether it infringes on men's privacy.

How the Media Covered It: Many mainstream outlets across the spectrum penned coverage on Tea and how the app is used, but the only mainstream coverage AllSides found of the leak came from CNET (Center bias) and NBC News (Lean Left). CNET gave a detailed breakdown of the hack. It highlighted the wider debate around the inherent security risks posed by online identity and age verification. CNET also quoted part of the privacy section on Tea’s website saying: "Tea Dating Advice takes reasonable security measures to protect your Personal Information to prevent loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction…however, that despite our efforts, no security measures are impenetrable." NBC noted the app had drawn the ire of some men, leading to a thread on “right-wing troll message board 4Chan” calling for a "hack and leak" campaign against the app. It wrote that the company has hired third-party cybersecurity experts to investigate the breach.

Revised by the AllSides staff (of humans) after a first draft from our custom AI. Learn more. Support our mission. Suggest an improvement to this summary.