Women's dating safety app Tea hit by data breach, exposing thousands of photos

A dating app for women to do background checks on men — and share information about potential bad actors — said it has been hacked, exposing tens of thousands of photos and other personal information.

Tea, the company behind the Tea Dating Advice app, said in a Friday alert posted on its website that a security breach compromised "a legacy data storage system" storing about 72,000 images.

Images taken in the breach, which Tea learned about at 6:44 a.m. PST on July 25, include about 13,000 selfies and users' photo identification, plus about 59,000 images from posts, comments and direct messages within the app.

No email addresses or phone numbers were accessed, according to Tea. The breach only affected users who signed up for the app before February 2024, the company said.

In the app's early days, Tea required selfies and IDs "as an added layer of safety to ensure that only women were signing up for the app," according to the company's statement. The ID requirement was removed in 2023, Tea said.

Third-party cybersecurity experts and Tea's internal security teams "are working around the clock to secure our systems. At this time, we have implemented additional security measures and have fixed the data issue," the company said in a statement to USA Today.

"There is no evidence to suggest that additional user data was affected. Protecting our users’ privacy and data is our highest priority," Tea said in its statement. "We are taking every necessary step to ensure the security of our platform and prevent further exposure."

Hackers were able to exploit Tea's data storage system to access where data was stored before Feb. 24, 2024, because "during our early stages of development some legacy content was not migrated into our new fortified system," according to the company's statement.

"As we grew our community, we migrated to a more robust and secure solution which has rendered that any new users from February 2024 until now were not part of the cybersecurity incident," the company said.

What is the Tea app?

The Tea Dating Advice app — its name comes from the phrase "spilling tea," or to share secrets or gossip — recently went viral, becoming the top free app in the Apple App Store this past week, claiming nearly 1 million new users, NBC News reported.

Available for free on Android and iOS, Tea provides women a way to check the personal history of men including a "Reverse Image Search" feature to catch men catfishing, pretending to be someone else online to attract potential romantic partners.

Other features include "Phone Number Lookup to check for hidden marriages, and Background Checks to uncover criminal records," according to the company's website. Women can also anonymously discuss men and give them "green" or "red" flags.

"Tea ensures that women have the information they need before meeting someone new," the company says on its website.

More than 1.7 million women have used the app, the company says.

Tea app breach prompts identity theft concerns

Reports from 404 Media and CNET say photos of some users and images of their drivers licenses were posted on 4Chan and Reddit message boards Friday.

USA Today has reached out to Tea for comment about any identity theft concerns for users.

If you joined the app before February 2024 and are concerned about your drivers license information or other personal information being misused, you can find tips on the Federal Trade Commission's Identity Theft website.

Read more at usatoday.com.