Tea, a stimulant Dating app Women were anonymously designed to ask or warn each other about men, which they would face, this week reached the top position on the US Apple App Store. On Friday, the company behind the app confirmed It was hacked: Thousands of pictures, including selfie, were leaked online.
San Francisco -based tea dating advice ink. Said in a statement,
404 media, which first Violation reportedSaid 4chan user Who discovered an exposed database, which “allows anyone to reach the material from tea”.
App and Breach Highlight Horrific nature Demanding romance at the age of Social media,
What do you know here:
Tea was meant to help women safely dating
Tea founder Sean Cook, a software engineer who previously worked in salesfors and shutterflys, says on the app’s website that he founded the company in 2022 after watching his own “terrible” experiences of his own mother. Cook said that they inadvertently dating men with criminal records and are “catfish” – cheated by men Using false identity,
Tea Market Bazaar is a safe way for men to anonyms as a safe way for women that they can find on dating apps tinder Or Bumbal – To ensure that men are those they say that they are, not criminals and not already in marriage or any relationship. “It is as if people have their own small yelp pages,” Aaron Minak said, whose Cleveland firm, MINC specializes in matters related to law, online defamation and harassment.
In a review of the Apple Store, a woman wrote that she used a tea discovery, starting to talk to a person to examine and “discovered more than 20 red flags, including attacks and women such as recording and recording serious allegations.” He said that he cut communication. “I couldn’t imagine how things could go, I didn’t know,” she wrote.
Increased social media attention in last week pushed tea to number 1 place on Apple’s US app Store As of 24 July, according to the sensor tower, a research firm. In seven days from 17-23 July, tea downloads started 525% compared to the week. Tea said in an Instagram post that it had reached 4 million users.
Tea has been criticized for attacking men’s confidentiality
A female columnist for the Times of London newspaper, who signed in the app on Thursday, said tea A “Man-Shemming Site” And complained that “this is only vigilance justice, completely dependent on the screws of benami women. With tea on the scene, will the man ever dare to downed a woman again?”
“In the last few weeks, we have received hundreds of calls on it. It has been blown,” said Attorney Minak. “People are upset. They are getting names. They are embarrassed.”
In 1996, Congress passed the law Conserving websites and apps liabilities For things posted by their users. But users may be sued for spreading “false and defamation” information, MINC said.
In May, however, A federal judge thrown out in Illinois The Facebook chat group criticized an attack-off-priority suit by a person criticized by women, “Are we dating the same man,” Bloomberg Law said.
The State Privacy Act can offer another Avenue to take legal action against someone who posted your photo or other personal information in a harmful manner, Minak said.
Breach exposed thousands of selfie and photo ID
In its statement, tea reported that about 72,000 images were leaked online, including 13,000 images of selfie or photo identity that users presented during account verification. According to the company’s statement, another 59,000 images were also publicly viewed in the app with posts, comments and direct messages.
No email addresses or phone numbers were exposed, the company said, and the violation impress only users who signed up before February 2024. “At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that additional user data was affected. Our top priority is to protect the privacy and data of tea users,” said tea.
It said that users do not need to change their passwords or remove their accounts. “All data are safe.”
Advocate MINC said he was not surprised to see tea targeted. “These sites are attacked,” he said. “They create enemies. They aim at themselves where people want to go after them.”
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Paul Visman, Associated Press
