A Male-Focused Tea App Competitor Is Also a Failure
Oh, you forgot about the Tea app, didn’t I send you my last post a few days ago? You’re in luck, but I’m about to piss you off: The drama surrounding the security breach of the women-only Yelp-style app that allows women to anonymously rate and review real men continues.
If you check the Apple App Store right now, you’ll see that the men’s version of the TeaOnHer app is ranked second in the Lifestyle rankings, just behind Tea itself. It seems we as a society haven’t learned anything from the backlash against Tea, but we also haven’t learned anything from the data breaches that women who subscribed to it have experienced. You guessed it: TeaOnHer can be hacked, too.
Introduction to TeaOnHer and its possible violation
First, what is TeaOnHer? It’s just a male version of Tea, developed by a different company. The app allows women to rate and review men, upload photos of them, and label them as “red” or “green” men, but men don’t have access to the platform, much less respond to messages. TOH is similar, but has a few key differences (more on that below).
Two weeks ago, the app Tea shot to the top of the Apple App Store charts, enjoying a moment of viral fame after two years of operating quietly. What followed was a swift backlash, including a coordinated data breach that leaked thousands of authentication photos of female users, mostly from government IDs. A second leak , potentially involving even more sensitive information in the form of private messages, occurred days later. Then, in late July, Tea finally got its comeuppance — meaning it now faces a class-action lawsuit over the whole thing .
None of this has stopped Tea from growing; as I said, the app still tops app charts. It hasn’t stopped competitors from entering the market either, which is how we created TeaOnHer, which went so far as to steal Tea’s tagline, not to mention its essence. Where Tea claims to “help women date safely,” TeaOnHer claims to “help men date safely.” Men can anonymously rate women and leave reviews, but according to TechCrunch , that’s not the only experience TeaOnHer is trying to provide its users. Men who download TOH are also vulnerable to data breaches.
I tried reaching out to the vendor listed on the App Store, Newville Media Corporation, for comment and will update this if I hear back. The gist of TechCrunch’s report is that there is “at least one security vulnerability that could allow anyone to access data about users of the TeaOnHer app, including their usernames and associated email addresses, as well as driver’s licenses and selfies users have uploaded to TeaOnHer.” The identification images are publicly accessible web addresses, so anyone who wants to see them just needs to find the link.
Tea on TeaOnHer
One notable difference between Tea and TOH is that TeaOnHer advertises its “safety” tool, but it’s not as comprehensive as Tea. Yes, Tea lets women say whatever they want about men, whether it’s true or not, but it also has features that help users check backgrounds, check sex offender lists, search records by phone number, and find criminal records and convictions. The idea is not just to identify scammers, cheaters, and double-dealers, but to identify real rapists as much as possible. TeaOnHer, on the other hand, says its “community helps you identify suspicious behavior patterns, safety red flags, and positive dating experiences from trusted sources.” Essentially, it borrows Tea’s anonymous gossip feature without its more robust safety resources.
It has just two stars in the App Store after 184 ratings. I assumed this was due to a slew of reviews criticizing the basic “Yelp for people” ethos, but I was wrong. Users are genuinely unhappy with the app’s functionality, complaining about the inability to create accounts or stay signed in. Several people report a lag issue where they can’t get access despite uploading verification images. I haven’t seen a single review criticizing the dubious nature of people-rating apps or mentioning reports of unsafe data storage.
So, it seems no one has learned that providing a platform for anonymous accusations against people without access to due process is dangerous, and no one has learned that uploading an image for review on such a platform is also dangerous. We continue to beat around the bush. Perhaps next week there will be a new twist to this story, but for now, enjoy the weekend.