The dating safety app Tea, founded by an interracial couple, has experienced a horrific database breach. This breach has exposed highly sensitive user data, such as thousands of personal images. The breach exposed more than 72,000 images, including pictures of the exposed nude bodies of its users, damaging the privacy of its users.
The breach included the exposure of 13,000 selfies and photo IDs that users had uploaded for account verification. Further, the dataset included about 59,000 images from posts, comments, and direct messages exchanged on the app. As reports from 404 Media show, 4chan users are taking an extraordinary effort to share personal information. This is not only with selfies of Tea.
The breach came to light, according to reports, after the company’s exposed database was found. In turn, users’ images and personal information became visible to anyone on the user-hostile online platform. Tea has been consistently ranking as the top free app in Apple’s App Store, including as of Saturday morning. This success was achieved despite persistent security scares about the app.
Following the incident, Tea has made immediate changes to improve its security measures. A company representative stated, “We have engaged third-party cybersecurity experts and are working around the clock to secure our systems.” Collectively, this step is intended to reduce additional security risks created as a result of the breach.
In fact, Tea has made other stepping up security since the attack. The representative emphasized, “At this time, we have implemented additional security measures and have fixed the data issue.” These efforts are a part of the company’s action plan to protect its users’ privacy and regain the public’s trust in its platform.
The breach has sent shockwaves through the cybersecurity community. These companies are now acutely aware of the security flaws present in mobile applications used to handle deeply sensitive personal information. Additionally, experts are encouraging users to be more aware about the data they share online, and to make a habit of updating their app permissions.