The embattled Tea app is back.
Months after being removed from Apple’s App Store in light of major data breaches, the app that allows women to share anonymous Yelp-style reviews of men is relaunching with a new website designed to help women “access dating guardrails without limitation,” Tea’s head of trust and safety Jessica Dees told WIRED.
The app, which launched in 2023 and went viral last summer, getting to number 1 on the iOS App Store, lets users post photos of men while also pointing out red flags, such as if they are already partnered or registered sex offenders. But just as its popularity skyrocketed, it suffered from data leaks that exposed users’ personal information. While the company claims it has boosted its security features, experts tell WIRED there’s still plenty of reason to be cautious.
The new site features “meaningful improvements” intended to bolster security, including “tightening internal safeguards, reinforcing access controls, and expanding review and monitoring processes to better protect sensitive information,” Dees claimed in an email. The company has also partnered with a third-party verification vendor to ensure that users are women—part of an “eligibility check.” During the sign-up process users are given the option to take a selfie video recording or submit a selfie photo with a government ID, which is then processed by the third-party system. “Our community’s trust is something we treat with real seriousness and we’ve invested deeply in building the right expertise and systems,” Dees said.
In addition to the website, Tea has added new features on its Android app, including an in-app AI dating coach that provides advice for different dating scenarios and a chat analysis capability, called Red Flag Radar AI, set to launch in the coming months, that can surface potential warning signs in suitors. “In both cases, AI is designed to supplement community insight and can help inform a community member’s point of view on something they might not be sure about,” Dees said. (Tea remains unavailable in the Apple App Store.)
Tea’s founder, Sean Cook, created the app after the “terrifying” online dating experience his mother had gone through—she was catfished and “unknowingly” communicated with “men who had criminal records,” according to the site. In a news release, the company said, “Tea’s rapid rise has brought the complexities of online dating into the global cultural conversation.”
On July 25, Tea suffered a data breach that revealed users’ photos, driver’s licenses, home addresses, direct messages, and other private documentation, 404 Media first reported. The leak, according to a statement from the company, exposed 72,000 images, including 13,000 selfies and photos of people’s IDs, and 59,000 images from posts, comments, and direct messages, some of which were posted on 4Chan and Reddit. Days later, 404 Media reported a second breach affecting 1.1 million users, exposing “messages between users discussing abortions, cheating partners, and phone numbers they sent to one another,” putting the safety and privacy of its women users at even greater risk.
The controversy sparked a fierce debate online about privacy rights and gender-based violence women are often subjected to while using dating apps. It also led to the creation of TeaOnHer, a rival male version of the Tea app that lets men post anonymously about women. Both apps were removed from the App Store following complaints about policy violations, privacy concerns, and content moderation issues. Tea was slapped with 10 potential class action lawsuits in federal and state courts, alleging breach of implied contract and negligence. In one of the lawsuits, a woman alleged that Tea failed “to properly secure and safeguard … personally identifiable information.”
Dees said she wants the launch of the new site to help put that chapter behind them. “The relaunch reflects a focused effort to broaden access to Tea’s safety and verification tools while deepening accountability across the platform,” she said, adding that “the need for safety-focused dating tools remains real and urgent.”
According to multiple studies, women are disproportionately impacted by the risks of online dating, often encountering physical harm. But while whisper networks can be vital tools to help keep women safe when navigating the dating wilds, apps like Tea are often less effective than IRL communication because they lack “situational trust and/or relationship building,” said Carrie Ann Johnson, an assistant professor of women’s and gender studies at Iowa State University. “I hope women think hard before sending in their photos or information to them. Tea will likely still be successful, but they should not be trusted like a whisper network because they are not providing one.” To reestablish user trust, she said, “they need to be absolutely clear about what they can reasonably protect and give strong warnings about what people should and should not share on a public site, even with protections.”
In terms of mitigating risk and future breaches, websites are equally as vulnerable to harm as apps, “and unfortunately this particular app has inflamed a lot of people, which makes it a target,” software security researcher Jonathan Leitschuh said. Leitschuh was recently served ads on Instagram for Tea Checker, a rival app that lets men “discreetly” find out if they have been posted on Tea. “An important question to ask is if Tea has had an external entity come in and do an audit of their software stack to see if there’s any vulnerabilities that are immediately apparent. If they’ve had a pen test, that would significantly incline them towards a better news outcome next round.” Penetration tests, or pen tests, are simulated cyberattacks that companies undergo to repair security weaknesses and improve their computer systems; among security professionals they are considered more comprehensive than vulnerability assessments.
Dees said the company has completed and continues to “actively conduct penetration testing at the infrastructure level, and the web app is protected by enterprise-grade platform security and backend controls.”
Considering potential legal concerns, Tea said it will monitor and moderate unchecked allegations made by users.
“If there are disputes, we offer non-Tea users a way to request a moderation review through a process explained on our website. We will intervene if there is a pattern of harassment, sexually explicit photos, or if we become aware of a safety issue related to a minor,” Dees said. “We believe in the right of our users to share safety-related warnings grounded in their lived experiences, and we ask users to attest that they are participating in good faith.”
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