Despite Breach and Lawsuits, Tea Dating App Surges in Popularity (www.cbc.ca) 39
The women-only app Tea now "faces two class action lawsuits filed in California" in response to a recent breach," reports NPR — even as the company is now boasting it has more than 6.2 million users.
A spokesperson for Tea told the CBC it's "working to identify any users whose personal information was involved" in a breach of 72,000 images (including 13,000 verification photos and images of government IDs) and a later breach of 1.1 million private messages. Tea said they will be offering those users "free identity protection services." The company said it removed the ID requirement in 2023, but data that was stored before February 2024, when Tea migrated to a more secure system, was accessed in the breach... [Several sites have pointed out Tea's current privacy policy is telling users selfies are "deleted immediately."]
Tea was reportedly intended to launch in Canada on Friday, according to information previously posted on the App Store, but as of this week the launch date is now in February 2026. Tea didn't respond to CBC's questions about the apparent delay. Yet even amid the current turmoil, Tea's waitlist has ballooned to 1.5 million women, all eager to join, the company posted on Wednesday. A day later, Tea posted in its Instagram stories that it had approved "well over" 800,000 women into the app that day alone.
So, why is it so popular, despite the drama and risks?
Tea tapped into a perceived weakness of ther dating apps, according to an associate health studies professor at Ontario's Western University interviewed by the CBC, who thinks users should avoid Tea, at least until its security is restored.
Tech blogger John Gruber called the incident "yet another data point for the argument that any 'private messaging' feature that doesn't use E2EE isn't actually private at all." (And later Gruber notes Tea's apparent absence at the top of the charts in Google's Play Store. "I strongly suspect that, although Google hasn't removed Tea from the Play Store, they've delisted it from discovery other than by searching for it by name or following a direct link to its listing.")
Besides anonymous discussions about specific men, Tea also allows its users to perform background and criminal record checks, according to NPR, as well as reverse image searches. But the recent breach, besides threatening the safety of its users, also "laid bare the anonymous, one-sided accusations against the men in their dating pools." The CBC points out there's a men's rights group on Reddit now urging civil lawsuits against tea as part of a plan to get the app shut down. And "Cleveland lawyer Aaron Minc, who specializes in cases involving online defamation and harassment, told The Associated Press that his firm has received hundreds of calls from people upset about what's been posted about them on Tea."
Yet in response to Tea's latest Instagram post, "The comments were almost entirely from people asking Tea to approve them, so they could join the app."
A spokesperson for Tea told the CBC it's "working to identify any users whose personal information was involved" in a breach of 72,000 images (including 13,000 verification photos and images of government IDs) and a later breach of 1.1 million private messages. Tea said they will be offering those users "free identity protection services." The company said it removed the ID requirement in 2023, but data that was stored before February 2024, when Tea migrated to a more secure system, was accessed in the breach... [Several sites have pointed out Tea's current privacy policy is telling users selfies are "deleted immediately."]
Tea was reportedly intended to launch in Canada on Friday, according to information previously posted on the App Store, but as of this week the launch date is now in February 2026. Tea didn't respond to CBC's questions about the apparent delay. Yet even amid the current turmoil, Tea's waitlist has ballooned to 1.5 million women, all eager to join, the company posted on Wednesday. A day later, Tea posted in its Instagram stories that it had approved "well over" 800,000 women into the app that day alone.
So, why is it so popular, despite the drama and risks?
Tea tapped into a perceived weakness of ther dating apps, according to an associate health studies professor at Ontario's Western University interviewed by the CBC, who thinks users should avoid Tea, at least until its security is restored.
Tech blogger John Gruber called the incident "yet another data point for the argument that any 'private messaging' feature that doesn't use E2EE isn't actually private at all." (And later Gruber notes Tea's apparent absence at the top of the charts in Google's Play Store. "I strongly suspect that, although Google hasn't removed Tea from the Play Store, they've delisted it from discovery other than by searching for it by name or following a direct link to its listing.")
Besides anonymous discussions about specific men, Tea also allows its users to perform background and criminal record checks, according to NPR, as well as reverse image searches. But the recent breach, besides threatening the safety of its users, also "laid bare the anonymous, one-sided accusations against the men in their dating pools." The CBC points out there's a men's rights group on Reddit now urging civil lawsuits against tea as part of a plan to get the app shut down. And "Cleveland lawyer Aaron Minc, who specializes in cases involving online defamation and harassment, told The Associated Press that his firm has received hundreds of calls from people upset about what's been posted about them on Tea."
Yet in response to Tea's latest Instagram post, "The comments were almost entirely from people asking Tea to approve them, so they could join the app."
Dating apps (Score:1, Interesting)
Tea tapped into a perceived weakness of their dating apps
Following the data breach, Tea now allows women to show off in front of the men that they want to attract. But then be offended when these men look.
Tea app compared to (Score:4, Interesting)
The tea app has many of the same problems that anonymous message boards have.
Looking at Wikipedia page for 4chan and the criticisms of harassment, cyberbullying and doxxing related to anonymous message apps. This is not equating the Tea app to all of the aspects of 4chan.
- "Internet hate machine"
- The stock price of Apple Inc. fell significantly in October 2008 after a hoax story was submitted to CNN's user-generated news site iReport.com claiming that company CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a major heart attack.
- a compromise of user passwords at iCloud allowed a large number of private photographs taken by celebrities to be posted online,[244] initially on 4chan
- Gamergate controversy, which began with unsubstantiated allegations about indie game developer Zoë Quinn from an ex-boyfriend, followed by false allegations from anonymous Internet users
https://parentzone.org.uk/arti... [parentzone.org.uk].
- organised hate and trolling campaigns, most notably 2014’s GamerGate.
- including doxxing (the publication of someone’s personal details online),
https://www.thebullhornnews.co... [thebullhornnews.com]
- The anonymity offered by 4chan has created an environment where users feel emboldened to post hateful and abusive messages without fear of reprisal. This has resulted in a proliferation of cyberbullying, harassment,
- The lack of moderation and accountability on these platforms can lead to the spread of misinformation, harassment,
- Engaging with or sharing content from these websites can have serious consequences, including damaging one's reputation, perpetuating harmful narratives, and contributing to the normalization of harmful behaviors and attitudes.
Apparently, based on the media reporting, one group's feelings of safety are more important than another group's legal right to privacy, legal right to not have personal information posted online (doxxing), and legal right to not be harassed online.
At what point does the Tea app's use as an online harassment app become important enough for it to be evaluated for removal from the app stores?
Examples of one-sided reporting (Score:3, Interesting)
There are negative social effects and a division of women from men due to the constant narrative "women's feeling of safety" is more important than any harm to men, men's reputations, and men's right to privacy.
There is some middle ground here, though the media, politicians and others keep ranking one group above the other in importance, people who matter and government policies and laws.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/... [msnbc.com]
Opinion - Outrage over the Tea dating app highlights the indifference to women’s v
Romance (Score:2)
Funny how romance is something men have had do work or perform and women had to exist and receive with no effort
It may be why me don't like romance movies since it's a story about "work" on his part.
Oddly, I just read an article about the app (Score:4, Informative)
Odder still, the article was basically a takedown of the app, saying it was less about 'safety' and more women trying to suss out if their spouses were cheating on them, and a gross sewing circle pertaining to penile size and bedroom prowess ("blahblahblah is a creep with a small ding-dong who lasts literally 30 seconds, etc, etc"). So one would think that stating the app also had their entire photo ID database leaked would be germane to the nature of the piece.
It seems someone did a real good job making sure mainstream press didn't catch wind of their troubles (are they still outright denying it happened??)
Re:Oddly, I just read an article about the app (Score:5, Insightful)
This app violates Apple's policies, but Apple will not take it down.
An exact gender-swapped version for men has been submitted by a few people, instantly rejected.
The gender bias is clear. It is ok to allow reputation-destroying content to be posted about men, along with photos, without the men's knowledge or consent. Only women are protected from this harm.
This is not equality.
Re: (Score:1)
The obvious and correct thing at this point is to get together a group of men damaged by the app and sue Apple (with much deeper pockets than the app). If what you say is true and they are deliberately supporting the app they should be vulnerable.
Can we get a list (Score:3, Insightful)
Wow! (Score:1)
Some women are even dumber than I thought.
Servicing a need (Score:2, Insightful)
For my money the most surprising thing is that Tea somehow didn't anticipate this and really focus on their security. Because obviously they were going to get the entire might o
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Servicing a need (Score:1)
It's critical to inject class warfare everywhere even where completely irrelevant?
Re:Servicing a need (Score:5, Insightful)
Please provide us all with your contact details and photo. Your home address would be nice too. I'd like to post how stupid you are on some social media sites for making such a dumb comment. I'd also like to make fun of your clear mental disability. Don't worry, if you give me your social accounts too, I'll block you specifically from being able to see it.
If you don't want to, then why not??? Why would any of that bother you???
I'm pretty sure that you can answer your own question if you think really really really hard.
Re: (Score:1)
Why was that?
Re: (Score:2)
No clue. I remain curious why thewolfkin and others seem bothered by women sharing information about men. Please state a reason.
quall's response comes off as unhinged, so it's hard to get a straight read on their point. You're implying sexism in how app store terms of service are applied, but that doesn't answer the question that I've asked three times now: Why do thewolfkin, quall, and now you seem bothered by women sharing information about men?
Re: (Score:2)
I remain curious why thewolfkin and others seem bothered by women sharing information about men.
Where did I say I care about that. My point is that clearly women feel very strongly about this which I understand. I'm not bothered by it or worried about it anymore than I'm worried about laws that enable women to report sexual assault. What I was saying is that I don't trust the technical aspects of the app developers. I think if you want to make a woman only app there are too many practical barriers. For instance sending in photo ID or picture validation runs into ugly women problems where mannish looki
Re: (Score:2)
I saw the app. It wasn't actually open for everyone and not just men, and still got shot down. But it was rejected for being insecure. It was rejected many times even before this leak.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't see your address, photo or contact details in your comment. Did you answer your own question, or are you still wondering as you've stated? I know it's hard, but truly think about it and I'm sure you can come up with the answer.
It only seems like I'm triggered to you because you're the subject of ridicule.... I'm sure you understand how laughably stupid your comment is by now since you hadn't even addressed the ridicule. Trust me, everyone thinks you're a moron for that post lol.
Re: (Score:2)
From your comment, I understand you to be a rude person. I'm not getting a whole lot more out of it than that.
Re: (Score:2)
especially the phrase "this is such an extreme need", I got the sense that the poster is bothered by women sharing information about men, and I would like to know why.
huh? My point is that women desperately want to protect themselves from bad men that's all. They're so desperate to protect themselves that even when they hear the app was hacked the result is just more women wanting to sign up. Which isn't unexplainable. For some of them this is life and death. I was just trying not to be so melodramatic as I expect the audience here trends against that sort of perspective.
Re: (Score:1)
We're both anonymous strangers to each other. You wanting to post negative things about me on the basis of a single comment on a forum is not analogous to the situation with Tea. Reading between the lines a little, it sounds like you're paranoid about women saying negative things about you in a private online forum. I could be wrong; it would be helpful if you could state your concerns in a more direct and rational manner.
I don't expect to be able to control what other people say about me. If someone sa
Re: (Score:2)
Thank you for a reasonable response. Risk of defamation is a legitimate concern. Many of the responses here came off to me as kneejerk and sexist.
I knew about them long ago from a ghosted friend (Score:2)
If anything the fact that it's still so popular just goes to show how much of a need this serviced. I wouldn't trust Tea at all but it does indicate that women feel very strongly that they need a way to share information about men. For women this is such an extreme need that ever after two leaks the desire hasn't even leveled off.
I have a good friend that told me about the app because she used it to determine why she was ghosted by her BF. She learned he does that often. I was horrified because she was sharing info about a guy without his knowledge or consent and not giving him chance to explain...and even mentioned how horrified she'd be if it were reversed.
Her response was that men go on dates fearing being doxxed on Tea from gilted exes. Women go on dates fearing being raped or mudered...not defending her logic, just repea
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Proving womens point. Good job everyone! (Score:4, Insightful)
Putting aside the argument about abusive persons. I think the core problem about this can be broken down into two points.
Both of those are very clear GDPR violations in Europe. I know the US has poor data protection laws, but this app should not exist on those two points alone.
I am amazed (Score:2)