Tea, an app for women to safely talk about men they date, has been breached, user IDs exposed

By BARBARA ORTUTAY Tea an app designed to let women safely discuss men they date has been breached with thousands of selfies and photo IDs of users exposed the company ratified on Friday Related Articles Intel cuts back spending workforce as struggling chip maker mounts comeback Home Showcase Jamaica Plain classic full of charm Wall Street s winning week ends with more records for US stocks The mistakes I made when refinancing my mortgage Federal regulators approve Paramount s billion deal with Skydance capping months of turmoil Tea mentioned that about images were leaked online including images of selfies or selfies featuring a photo identification that users submitted during account verification Another images publicly viewable in the app from posts comments and direct messages were also accessed without authorization according to a Tea spokesperson No email addresses or phone numbers were accessed the company commented and the breach only affects users who signed up before February Tea has engaged third-party cybersecurity experts and are working around the clock to secure its systems the company reported At this time there is no evidence to suggest that additional user evidence was affected Protecting tea users privacy and input is their highest priority Tea presents itself as a safe way for women to anonymously vet men they might connect with on dating apps such as Tinder or Bumble ensuring that your date is safe not a catfish and not in a relationship Tea is a must-have app helping women avoid red flags before the first date with dating advice and showing them who s really behind the profile of the person they re dating reads Tea s app store description Media which earlier published the breach mentioned it was Chan users who discovered an exposed database that allowed anyone to access the material from Tea While reporting this story a URL the chan user posted included a voluminous list of specific attachments associated with the Tea app Media saw this list of files In the last hour or so that page was locked down and now returns a Permission denied error Media shared Friday Tea stated in an Instagram post this week that it has reached million users