This is painfully ironic.
As BBC News reports, an app designed to enhance women’s safety and vet potential dating partners has itself suffered a serious security breach.
The Tea Dating Advice app, used by women to do background checks on men, identify catfishers and scammers, and share “red flags”, had rocketed to the top of the charts on Apple’s App Store.
And now it has spilled an alarming amount of data, including thousands of selfies.
It is reported that 72,000 images, including sensitive ID verification photos that were supposed to be deleted immediately, were carelessly exposed for anyone with an internet connection to access.
According to the company, an additional 59,000 images, which included posts, comments, and direct messages, were also breached.
The data has, unfortunately, reportedly been a source of much entertainment for members of 4Chan community which stumbled across the exposed database.
No email addresses or phone numbers were exposed, according to Tea, and the breach is limited to users who signed up before February 2024.
Hear more discussion of this issue in episode 428 of the “Smashing Security” podcast.
