A courting security app that enables girls to do background checks on males and anonymously share “crimson flag” behaviour has been hacked, exposing hundreds of members’ pictures, posts and feedback.
Tea Relationship Recommendation, a US-based women-only app with 1.6 million customers, stated there had been “unauthorised entry” to 72,000 pictures submitted by girls.
Some included pictures of ladies holding photograph identification for verification functions, which Tea’s personal privateness coverage guarantees are “deleted instantly” after authentication.
Tea stated the breach affected members who signed up earlier than February 2024. It added it had “acted quick” and was “working with a number of the most trusted cyber safety consultants”.
The app has just lately skilled a surge in recognition – in addition to criticism from some who declare it’s anti-men.
Tea lets girls verify whether or not potential companions are married or registered intercourse offenders in addition to run reverse picture searches to guard towards “catfishing”, the place folks use pretend on-line identities.
However one of the vital controversial points of Tea is that it permits girls to share info on males they’ve dated to “keep away from crimson flags” but in addition spotlight these with “inexperienced flag” qualities.
The corporate stated the breached pictures “can under no circumstances be linked to posts inside Tea”.
The agency blocks screenshots in order that posts should not shared outdoors the app.
However on Friday it additionally admitted that a further 59,000 pictures from the app exhibiting posts, feedback and direct messages from over two years in the past had been accessed.
Tea stated: “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 Cook dinner, a software program engineer who stated he was impressed to create Tea after witnessing his mom’s on-line courting experiences.
He advised Medium in Could: “I used to be shocked by how simple it was for catfish, scammers and criminals to reap the benefits of girls on courting apps and the way little conventional courting apps do to guard customers.”
Nevertheless, some males – and ladies – have challenged a lot of these teams claiming that they put males susceptible to invasion of privateness and defamation.
Earlier this yr, a person named Nikko D’Ambrosio took authorized motion towards Fb’s proprietor Meta due to numerous statements made about him in a chat group known as “Are We Relationship the Identical Man”.
The lawsuit was thrown out by a federal choose in Illinois.
