Have you been out of the loop regarding the Tea app since the last update? Unfortunately, the issues surrounding this women’s-only platform, which functions similarly to Yelp by allowing women to anonymously rate and review men, are far from resolved.

Currently, a men’s counterpart named TeaOnHer is making waves on the Apple App Store, holding the second position on the Lifestyle charts, right beneath the original Tea app. This suggests that society hasn’t learned from the backlash faced by Tea, and similarly, the data breaches experienced by female users remain a pressing concern. It’s worth noting—TeaOnHer is not immune to security issues either.

Understanding TeaOnHer and Its Security Concerns

So, what exactly is TeaOnHer? Essentially, it’s a male-oriented version of the Tea app, created by a different organization. This app likewise allows men to rate and review women, post their photos, and label them as “red flag” or “green flag” individuals—all without giving women any access to the platform or the opportunity to respond. While TeaOnHer mirrors some functionalities of the original app, there are important differences (details to follow).

Just two weeks ago, Tea surged to the top of the App Store charts after gaining unexpected popularity after two years of relative quiet. This was shortly followed by significant backlash, marked by a serious data breach, exposing thousands of female users’ verification images, mostly government IDs. An additional breach occurred shortly thereafter, revealing potentially even more sensitive personal messages. By the end of July, Tea found itself facing a class-action lawsuit related to these incidents.

Despite the controversies, Tea managed to retain its spot at the top of the app charts. The unrest in the wake of its controversies has not hindered competitors from emerging, giving rise to TeaOnHer, which goes so far as to adopt the same tagline as Tea. While Tea claims to be “helping women date safely,” TeaOnHer touts its mission as “helping men date safely.” Men using the app can also rate and review women, but according to reports from TechCrunch, the risks to user data are similarly prevalent.

Attempts to contact the listed developer, Newville Media Corporation, for a comment have been made, and updates will follow if a response is received. The TechCrunch article outlines a significant security vulnerability that exposes data linked to TeaOnHer users, including usernames, email addresses, and uploaded photos like driver’s licenses and selfies. Disturbingly, these identification images are stored as publicly accessible URLs, meaning anyone can easily find and view them.

Exploring the TeaOnHer Experience

A distinguishing factor between Tea and TeaOnHer is that while Tea markets itself as a robust “safety” tool, its offerings are more extensive than those of its male counterpart. Tea empowers women to express their opinions about men, irrespective of factual accuracy, while also providing essential features like background checks, sex offender list cross-references, reverse image searches, and public records searches. This aims to identify not only benign deceivers but also genuine threats. In contrast, TeaOnHer aims to identify concerning behaviors and safety red flags based on user reports but lacks the rigorous safety measures offered by Tea.

The app currently holds a two-star rating on the App Store, accumulating 184 ratings. Initially, it was assumed that most reviews would criticize the ethically challenging aim of the app, but it appears users are more frustrated with the app’s performance—unable to create accounts or stay logged in. Several users reported timeout issues that prevent them from using the app despite having submitted verification images. Notably, very few reviews express concerns regarding the ethical ramifications of rating others or the safety of data storage.

This raises pressing questions about the implications of providing a platform for anonymous accusations without any form of due process. It seems there’s a continuing cycle of oversights and missteps. Perhaps there will be more developments on this saga next week. For now, enjoy the weekend!