I just read about the Tea app data breach and it’s got me concerned about the current state of privacy. Not because I use the app, but because of what it represents.
For context: Tea is a women’s dating safety app that just suffered not one, but multiple massive data exposures. Tens of thousands of user verification photos, driver’s licenses, and over a million private messages were all accessed by unauthorized parties. Some of this data ended up on 4chan with posts literally saying “DRIVERS LICENSES AND FACE PICS! GET THE F**K IN HERE BEFORE THEY SHUT IT DOWN!”
The conversations that got leaked included sensitive topics and deeply personal stuff women shared thinking it was safe.
What really gets me is the founder’s technical background appears to be a 6-month coding bootcamp. I’ve got nothing against bootcamp grads…some of the best developers can come from that path. But building an app that stores government IDs and handles women’s safety data is a different beast entirely.
That company’s response to this has been total and complete silence. No acknowledgment, no user notifications, nothing. Users found out from news reports. A class action lawsuit has now been filed.
This feels like a perfect storm of our current moment: AI tools making it easier than ever to build complex apps, founders who can ship fast but maybe don’t really grasp the weight of what they’re handling, and users who trust these platforms with their most sensitive information.
When you’re dealing with women’s safety you have to keep it top of mind that these aren’t just “users,” they’re real people who trusted this platform to keep them safe, and that trust was betrayed in the worst possible way.
I keep thinking about all those women who verified their identity thinking they were joining a secure platform, only to have their faces and IDs posted on one of the internet’s most toxic forums.
We can build anything now. The question is: should we? And if we do, are we actually equipped to handle the responsibility that comes with it? What responsibility do app stores have in removing these apps or alerting users to real world damage?
If you haven’t seen this reported in the news, I encourage you to check out the amazing reporting from Joe Cox and the 404media team
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