Major Data Breach Hits Women's Dating Safety App, Exposing Users' Private Information

Tea Dating Advice, a women's-only app aimed at enhancing safety through background checks and behavior alerts, has suffered a data breach affecting over 130,000 users' photos and private messages, raising concerns over privacy and security measures in the online dating landscape.

A dating safety application designed for women has fallen victim to a significant data breach, revealing sensitive user information and raising urgent privacy concerns. Tea Dating Advice, a platform with over 1.6 million women users, reported unauthorized access to 72,000 images, including some featuring women holding identification for verification—contradicting the app's promise to delete such images immediately following authentication.

Tea Dating Advice stated that the breach impacted users who joined before February 2024 and emphasized that they had responded swiftly, collaborating with trusted cybersecurity experts to address the issue. The app, which recently gained popularity despite backlash over claims of being anti-male, enables women to perform background checks on potential partners, including checks for marital status and sex offender registration, alongside reverse image searches to prevent catfishing incidents.

The app also permits users to share insights about men's behaviors—encouraging their "red-flag" and "green-flag" attributes. However, the company clarified that the compromised images could not be connected to the posts within the app. Nonetheless, it was later disclosed that an additional 59,000 images, comprising posts, messages, and comments dating back two years, had also been accessed.

In light of these incidents, Tea assured its community that protective measures are being reinforced. Founded in November 2022 by Sean Cook, the app was inspired by his experiences witnessing the vulnerabilities women face on dating platforms. However, accusations have surfaced asserting that such groups risk violating men's privacy, exemplified by a lawsuit filed against Meta regarding similar allegations.

As concerns escalate around dating platforms' data protection protocols, the fallout from this breach underscores the pressing need for enhanced cybersecurity measures in the digital dating sphere.