Tea is back with a new website

Trapped tea The application is back.

Months after being removed from Apple’s App Store in light of major data breaches, an app that allows women to share anonymous Yelp-style reviews for men is being relaunched with a new website designed to help women “access dating guardrails without restrictions,” Jessica Dees, head of trust and safety at Tea, told WIRED.

The app, which launched in 2023 and went viral last summer, reaching No. 1 on the iOS App Store, allows users to post photos of men while also noting red flags, such as whether they are already partners or registered sex offenders. But as its popularity skyrocketed, it suffered from a data leak that exposed users’ personal information. While the company claims to have beefed up its security features, experts tell WIRED there are still plenty of reasons to be cautious.

The new site features “targeted improvements” aimed at strengthening security, including “tightening internal safeguards, strengthening access controls, and expanding audits and monitoring processes to better protect sensitive information,” Diess claimed in an email. The company has also partnered with a third-party verification vendor to ensure users are women, as part of an “eligibility check.” During the registration process, users have the option to take a selfie video recording or submit a selfie using a government ID, which is then processed by the third-party system. “Our community’s trust is something we take really seriously and we have invested deeply in building the right expertise and systems,” Dees said.

Courtesy of Tea

Courtesy of Tea

In addition to the website, Tea has added new features to its Android app, including an in-app AI dating coach that offers advice for different dating scenarios and a chat analysis capability, called Red Flag Radar AI, set to launch in the coming months, that can flag potential warning signs in suitors. “In both cases, AI is designed to complement the community’s vision and can help inform community members’ perspective on something they may not be sure about,” Diess said. (Tea is still not available in the Apple App Store.)

Tea founder Sean Cook created the app after his mother’s “horrifying” online dating experience, where she was harassed and “unknowingly” hooked up with “men with criminal records,” according to the site. “The rapid rise of tea has brought the complexities of online dating into the global cultural conversation,” the company said in a press release.

On July 25, Tea suffered a data breach that exposed users’ photos, driver’s licenses, home addresses, direct messages and other private documents, 404 Media first reported. According to a company statement, the leak revealed 72,000 images, including 13,000 personal photos and photos of people’s identities, and 59,000 photos of posts, comments, and direct messages, some of which were published on the 4Chan and Reddit websites. 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 each other,” putting the safety and privacy of its female users at greater risk.

The controversy sparked intense online debate about privacy rights and the gender-based violence that women often experience while using dating apps. It also led to the creation of TeaOnHer, a competing male version of the Tea app that allows men to post anonymously about women. Both apps were removed from the App Store after complaints about policy violations, privacy concerns, and content moderation issues. 10 potential class action lawsuits have been filed against Tea in federal and state courts, alleging breach of implied contract and negligence. In one lawsuit, a woman alleged that Tea failed to “secure and protect…personally identifiable information.”