Security breaches have been decisive for Tea App. The app has at least 10 class-action lawsuits following data leaks involving selfies, ID photos, and private conversations. The lawsuits are already in federal and state courts. Tea App is an app designed exclusively for women, offering a space where they can share alerts and experiences related to inappropriate behavior or red flags they’ve noticed in previous encounters with men.
The app’s operation has come under scrutiny, as some users have warned of potential privacy violations, and it has also been criticized for crossing legal and ethical boundaries. All lawsuits allege that Tea Dating Advice Inc., the company that created the Tea app, was negligent in its data practices and breached a contract with its users.
How does the smartphone app work?
The platform offers women a forum where they can create anonymous alerts with a man’s name. This way, other users receive alerts or notifications if someone posts information about him. This allows them to be aware of potentially problematic or negative behavior that could occur on a date. Additionally, women can write reviews about the men they’ve dated, sharing their experiences with the rest of the community.
The app gained popularity in late July and rose to the top of the Apple App Store, as many women sought to share information about men they were dating or had dated. With the number of publicly known cases of fake identities on social media and other dating apps, this seemed like a possible solution to prevent certain undesirable situations.
The app remained third on the list of top free apps in the Apple App Store
The app allows users to upload photos of men, identify them as “red flags” or “red flags,” and share other information about them. As of last week, the app remained third on the list of top free apps in the Apple App Store. Now, to mitigate the damage, Tea Dating has suspended direct messaging following a series of glitches that exposed users’ personal data and sensitive communications.
Upon downloading the app and joining, users were required to take verification photos, which Tea says are deleted after submission. Tea Dating suffered a security breach just a few days ago, leaving 72,000 images exposed, including 13,000 selfies and account verification IDs, as well as 59,000 photos of posts, comments, and direct messages. The first breach occurred July 25. Tea Dating has suspended direct messaging following a series of breaches that exposed users’ personal data and sensitive communications.
The messages exposed dated from early 2023 to last month
Separately, 404 Media reported two days later that Tea had experienced a second security breach, in which more than 1.1 million messages were exposed. The messages dated from early 2023 to last month. In this regard, on X, users began circulating a link to a website called TeaSpill that allowed people to rate photos of women based on their attractiveness.
This is a turning point for the app, as it has more than four million users. The app presents itself as a dating safety platform that women can use to avoid unsafe encounters. However, the data breach has jeopardized people’s privacy and, therefore, the app’s credibility.
This lawsuit is relevant because privacy is one of the main concerns of users and big tech companies today. On the one hand, the more convenience and leisure, the less privacy. If you want to use an app like Uber, you have to accept the privacy policy so the app can use your location; if you want to upload stories to Instagram, you also have to accept the privacy policy so the app can access your smartphone’s camera and microphone. So it’s an issue that deserves to be brought to the table and try to find a compromise.
