As women sue Tea app for data breach, a similar but male-focused TeaOnHer app found leaking data too

Dating apps have always been a bit of a gamble, but lately the risks go way beyond awkward first dates. The Tea app, which let women anonymously share their experiences with men they’d dated, is getting hit with lawsuits after a major data breach. Now there’s another problem: TeaOnHer, basically Tea’s male counterpart, is also spilling user data all over the internet.

Tea’s security nightmare started small but got ugly fast. At first, it looked like “just” 72,000 images had leaked – verification selfies, photo IDs, plus images from posts and messages. Bad enough, right? But then investigators found something worse: over 1.1 million private messages going back to early 2023 were sitting there for anyone to grab. You can read our whole breakdown on the situation here.

The legal mess followed quickly. Multiple class-action lawsuits are now targeting Tea, claiming the company was careless with user data and broke its promises to keep things safe. Some users say they’ve been harassed online after their info leaked. It’s pretty twisted when you think about it – an app designed to help women ended up putting them at risk. The leaked data has shown up on sketchy websites where people can rate photos of the hacked users.

There are even reports of someone creating maps showing where Tea users live. This isn’t just a privacy violation anymore; it’s turning into real-world danger.

Here’s where things get even weirder: TeaOnHer launched as Tea’s male equivalent, letting men post photos and stories about women they claim to have dated. Guess what? TechCrunch discovered that TeaOnHer is also hemorrhaging user data – government IDs, selfies, usernames, email addresses, even driver’s licenses, all sitting there for anyone with a web browser to find. The company behind it, Newville Media Corporation, apparently left their own login credentials exposed on the same server. You can’t make this stuff up.

TeaOnHer’s content is disturbing too. Reports describe non-consensual images and posts sharing women’s photos and names alongside nasty comments. Where’s the content moderation? How are these apps climbing the app store charts when they’re this broken and potentially harmful?

This goes beyond technical failures. People are getting hurt, their trust is shattered, and their personal lives are being exposed. The lawsuits against Tea (and likely TeaOnHer soon) will probably change how courts hold app developers responsible for protecting user data.

More importantly, with the new “vibe coding” trend that seems to have kicked off thanks to AI, I feel like everyone should be cautious about the information they share on random new apps that pop up out of the blue. While developers might have good intentions, you never know if the app you’re trusting has a massive security loophole. Most big tech platforms spend millions to ensure their apps are safe from exploits, but at times, data breaches still occur, and some can be embarrassing too. So before you go out there dunking on your ex or getting adventurous, think twice about what you post and where you post it.