Top-ranked Tea App rocked by massive data leak, 4Chan finds 72,000 exposed images in Google Cloud

The world’s most talked-about “dating safety” app has just been blindsided by a massive data leak and the details are as unsettling as they are unexpected in Tea App.

Tea, the viral platform that lets women anonymously flag potential “red” or “green” behavior in men, confirmed that thousands of private photos and ID documents have been exposed. The discovery was made by none other than 4Chan users, who stumbled upon an unsecured cloud storage bucket holding about 72,000 files including 13,000 selfies and government IDs used for gender verification.

Launched in 2023, Tea has rapidly climbed to the top of Apple’s App Store, claiming over 4 million members worldwide. The app markets itself as a safety tool, where women can discreetly share warnings about married men, catfishers, or even criminal histories. But critics argue the platform has also sparked controversies around false accusations and privacy risks.

Now, that privacy risk has exploded into reality.

According to 404 Media, links to Tea’s exposed database hosted on Google’s Firebase platform were shared on 4Chan after calls for a “hack and leak” campaign. Despite Tea’s claim that verification selfies are “deleted immediately,” the leak reportedly contains two years’ worth of posts, comments, and direct messages from before February 2024.

Tea insists the leaked database was part of an older archive stored under law enforcement requirements for cyberbullying investigations. The company says it has brought in cybersecurity specialists and is “working around the clock” to lock down its systems.

A spokesperson stressed:

“Protecting our users’ privacy and data is our highest priority. We are taking every necessary step to secure the platform and prevent further exposure.”

This is not the first time 4Chan has been linked to headline-making leaks — the infamous 2014 “Celebgate” scandal also had roots in the forum.

For Tea, the question now is whether this breach will simply be a bump in the road — or a critical blow to the trust that fueled its meteoric rise.