Tea, a mobile app that allows women to anonymously share their dating experiences with men, has suffered a major data breach. The company told Reuters on Saturday that about 72,000 photos belonging to its users were stolen.
A spokesperson for the app said there was an “unauthorized intrusion into our systems.” The breach exposed 13,000 selfies and ID photos that users had submitted to verify their accounts, as well as 59,000 photos collected from posts, comments and private messages.
The company said it has hired independent cybersecurity experts to investigate the incident and is working 24/7 to protect its systems. It said email addresses and phone numbers were not compromised, and only users registered before February 2024 were affected.
404 Media first reported the breach on Friday.
The Tea app allows women to write Yelp-style anonymous reviews of the men they meet. Users can only use this feature after going through a verification process. The app claims to prioritize women’s safety during meetings and says that more than two million women have applied to join the platform in recent days.
Note that users are required to send a selfie to join the “Tea” app. The company says that these photos are deleted after verification.
