Tea, a conversation platform centered around dating, recently experienced a prominent security breach and revealed late on Monday that some private messages were compromised during this event.
The app, which is aimed at enabling women to discuss their dating experiences with men in a safe environment, quickly rose to the top of the U.S. Apple App Store last week. However, by Friday, it confirmed that a vast number of selfies and photo IDs belonging to its users were leaked in a cyberattack.
404 Media first brought attention to this additional security vulnerability. They cited an independent security expert who discovered that unauthorized parties could potentially read conversations among users, which included discussions about abortions, infidelity, and exchanged phone numbers.
In a statement posted on its social media accounts, Tea said it “recently learned that some direct messages (DMs) were accessed as part of the initial incident.”
“Out of an abundance of caution, we have taken the affected system offline,” the app said. “At this time, we have found no evidence of access to other parts of our environment.”
It is currently unknown how many messages were left exposed by the vulnerability.
Tea has said about 72,000 images were leaked online in the initial incident, including 13,000 images of selfies or selfies featuring a photo identification that users submitted during account verification. Another 59,000 images publicly viewable in the app from posts, comments and direct messages were also accessed without authorization, a spokesperson said last week.
No email addresses or phone numbers were accessed, the company said, and the breach only affects users who signed up before February 2024.
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