Hackers Leak 13,000 User Photos From The Tea App, Designed As A Women's Safe Space

Hackers person breached nan Tea app, which precocious went viral arsenic a place for women to safely talk astir men, and tens of thousands of women’s selfies and photograph IDs person now seemingly been leaked online.

A spokesperson confirmed nan hack Friday afternoon. The institution estimates that 72,000 images, including 13,000 verification photos and images of authorities IDs, were accessed.

Tea is designed to usability arsenic a virtual susurration web for women, allowing them to upload photos of men and hunt for them by name. Users tin time off comments describing circumstantial men arsenic a “red flag” aliases “green flag,” and stock different accusation astir them.

It’s precocious gained specified fame that it became nan apical free app successful nan Apple App Store this week. The app claimed Thursday to person precocious gained astir a cardinal caller signups.

Signing up for Tea requires users to return selfies, which nan app says are deleted aft review, to beryllium they are women. All users who get accepted are promised anonymity extracurricular of nan usernames they choose. Taking screenshots of what’s successful nan app is besides blocked.

The hacker accessed a database from much than 2 years ago, nan Tea spokesperson said, adding that “This information was primitively stored successful compliance pinch rule enforcement requirements related to cyberbullying prevention.”

The Tea spokesperson said that nan institution has hired third-party cybersecurity experts and is “working astir nan timepiece to unafraid our systems.”

“Protecting our users’ privateness and information is our highest priority. Tea is taking each basal measurement to guarantee nan information of our level and forestall further exposure,” nan spokesperson said.

The app has angered immoderate men, and prompted a thread Thursday evening connected nan right-wing troll connection committee 4Chan, successful which users called for a “hack and leak” campaign. The institution became alert of nan incident early Friday, nan spokesperson said.

A 4Chan personification posted a nexus Friday morning, allegedly allowing group to download nan database of stolen images, and troves of alleged victims’ recognition photos person been posted connected 4Chan and X.

NBC News has not verified nan authenticity of nan photos aliases their provenance.