A courting security app that enables ladies to do background checks on males and anonymously share “purple flag” behaviour has been hacked, exposing 1000’s of members’ pictures, posts and feedback.
Tea Relationship Recommendation, a US-based women-only app with 1.6 million customers, mentioned there had been “unauthorised entry” to 72,000 pictures submitted by ladies.
Some included pictures of girls holding photograph identification for verification functions, which Tea’s personal privateness coverage guarantees are “deleted instantly” after authentication.
Tea mentioned the breach affected members who signed up earlier than February 2024. It added it had “acted quick” and was “working with among the most trusted cyber safety specialists”.
The app has not too long ago skilled a surge in reputation – in addition to criticism from some who declare it’s anti-men.
Tea lets ladies examine whether or not potential companions are married or registered intercourse offenders in addition to run reverse picture searches to guard towards “catfishing”, the place individuals use pretend on-line identities.
However one of the vital controversial features of Tea is that it permits ladies to share data on males they’ve dated to “keep away from purple flags” but in addition spotlight these with “inexperienced flag” qualities.
The corporate mentioned the breached photographs “can by no means be linked to posts inside Tea”.
The agency blocks screenshots in order that posts are usually not shared exterior the app.
However on Friday it additionally admitted that a further 59,000 pictures from the app displaying posts, feedback and direct messages from over two years in the past had been accessed.
Tea mentioned: “We’re taking each step to guard this group – now and at all times.”
BBC Information has contacted Tea for remark.
The corporate was arrange in November 2022 by Sean Prepare dinner, a software program engineer who mentioned he was impressed to create Tea after witnessing his mom’s on-line courting experiences.
He instructed Medium in Might: “I used to be shocked by how straightforward it was for catfish, scammers and criminals to make the most of ladies on courting apps and the way little conventional courting apps do to guard customers.”
Nonetheless, some males – and ladies – have challenged most of these teams claiming that they put males susceptible to invasion of privateness and defamation.
Earlier this 12 months, a person named Nikko D’Ambrosio took authorized motion towards Fb’s proprietor Meta due to a lot of statements made about him in a chat group referred to as “Are We Relationship the Similar Man”.
The lawsuit was thrown out by a federal choose in Illinois.
