A Long Time Coming
Apple finally did what it should’ve done months ago: it pulled Tea and TeaOnHer from the App Store. Both apps were delisted for violating Apple’s App Review Guidelines around content moderation and protecting users’ privacy. The company said it received an excess of negative reviews from users, including complaints regarding the personal information of minors being posted on the apps.
Honestly, it’s about time. The decision followed a wave of security breaches that made it impossible to ignore the mess both apps had become.
I’m surprised that Google hasn’t followed suit. For now, Tea and TeaOnHer are still available on the Play Store.
Tea Never Cared About Safety
The Tea app promoted itself as a safe dating app for women. Users could spill details on men they dated, share personal information and discuss whether they were a red flag (problematic) or a green flag (good guy).
In reality, the app wanted to take over the “Are We Dating The Same Guy?” community founded by Paola Sanchez on Facebook. After failing to recruit Sanchez as the face for their app, Tea hired influencers to undermine her community. Tea created competing Facebook groups with similar names, confusing users and spam links to their app. These tactics are why the app exploded in popularity this year.
It all came crashing down this summer when Tea experienced multiple security breaches. The first one exposed users’ selfies and photos of their driver’s licenses. Then a second breach revealed private messages women sent inside the app. A third breach affected the women who were paid to promote the app.
From the start, Tea’s identity verification system was a time bomb waiting to go off. How did the company respond to the data breaches? By minimizing the severity of the damage while continuing to paint Tea as a “girls-only space.”
The Copycat Didn’t Learn Anything
TeaOnHer was Tea’s mirror image. After Tea’s initial viral success, TeaOnHer tried to capitalize on the attention. It was created for the men who were angry about Tea’s existence, claiming it was an invasion of privacy.
Yet the app repeated the same mistakes men were complaining about. It wasn’t long until the app experienced a similar breach that revealed the government IDs, selfies and driver’s licenses of more than 53,000 users.
The developer behind TeaOnHer criticized Apple for delisting their app. They claimed the app used “AI moderation” and added protections for minors. Apple reviewed those claims and found them insufficient.
A Warning for Identity Verification
The data breaches Tea and TeaOnHer suffered from prove what a dangerously stupid idea it is to trust some random tech company with info that can identify you. It’s frustrating to see politicians pushing legislation that’ll force apps to request users send personal information to verify their accounts. How many security breaches do we need until someone realizes how reckless these policies are?
Copycat apps are popping up on the App Store to fill the gap Tea left behind. These apps keep slipping through the cracks because Apple and Google only act after the damage is done. At this point, Apple and Google should just ban apps that force users to upload sensitive info just so you can create an account. No app should have access to that kind of information in the first place.
