Tea, an app designed for women to share good and bad dating experiences with men, in order to help others out, has had over 72,000 images leaked, including 13,000 of their IDs.
The premise was simple. Women log into the app using their ID to prove who they are, then share pictures and names of men they have dated. The community can contribute if they have also dated them. The idea is to warn other women about potential problems or share shining reviews, although we all know there were none of those.
It helped people find out if their potential partner was an adulterer, abusive, had awful breath, and so on. Signing in with an ID was intended to keep it single sex and safe. But the Tea database was as strong as a wet paper bag, and within days, it had been hacked and leaked.
No Anonymity
The Tea hack has confirmed that 72,000 images have been exposed in the leak. More concerning is the fact that many of them are selfies and pictures of people’s government IDs. As well as images, the locations of all the victims of the leak have been pinned on a Google map. However, this doesn’t include the names or faces.
It all started when users of the renowned 4Chan forum started posting about the Tea app. They weren’t happy with its implications and potential for witchhunting and cruelty. So, there was a call for a hack and leak of the company. Within a few hours, one of the more tech-savvy users uploaded a leaked file with all the hacked data they could mine from the Tea app.
The data uploaded by the women using Tea was incredibly easy to get hold of. This suggests the creators have not done their due diligence in protecting users’ privacy. Thankfully, for the women who have had their images leaked, no names or phone numbers were attached to the leak.
The backlash against the site designed to name and shame men is understandable. Of course, women do need to remain safe, especially when using online dating. However, a public forum to gossip and defame people hardly seems the healthiest way to do it.