this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2025
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Users from 4chan claim to have discovered an exposed database hosted on Google’s mobile app development platform, Firebase, belonging to the newly popular women’s dating safety app Tea. Users say they are rifling through peoples’ personal data and selfies uploaded to the app, and then posting that data online, according to screenshots, 4chan posts, and code reviewed by 404 Media.

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[–] thatradomguy@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Another example of why people shouldn't be uploading/sharing nudes on any platform when the pretense is that it will only be between 2 people. That just isn't realistic anymore. Never was, really. I still don't get how people can hear and know about all the hacks happening now but they can't see that sending nudes is somehow unsafe? Why does society work this way?

[–] Electricd@lemmybefree.net 6 points 1 day ago

Send nudes on Signal!

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I guess sending nudes is the norm and 'expected?' There's social pressure to conform, and as we know, security isnt generally in the front of people's minds...

[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 6 points 1 day ago

One would have hoped the lesson here would be about the dangers of commoditfiying everything as a fucking "app", but no, it looks like its not the increadably irresponsible company at fault (as is tradition).

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 95 points 2 days ago (4 children)

I can't open the article, but I think I read that this was hosted on an unprotected bucket. Assuming that's correct I wouldn't say this was a breach. A better headline would be "Women dating safety app 'Tea' exposed women's PII".

To be 100% clear, I'm not excusing the hackers. I don't believe it's morally correct to publicize something because it is exposed. For folks curious about that you can look into how to ethically disclose vulnerabilities. I still view this as doxxing. I still believe what the hackers did should be a criminal offense, it's just that I also believe the app holds a ton of the blame as well. How can you proclaim to be about keeping women safe while putting them at risk? That should be punished as well.

Like if the storage facility you trusted to hold your stuff never had locks on the doors, shouldn't they take a lot of the blame as well as the thief who found out a door was unlocked?

[–] teslasaur@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Soft rules have never applied to the internet.

Things that you wouldn't do afk, just because "those are the rules", doesn't apply when every empathy damaged person in the world with an internet connection can break them.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago
[–] hopesdead@startrek.website 43 points 2 days ago (9 children)

The bigger problem is trying to get the mainstream that would read an article like that to understand the technical difference between hacking and accessing unsecured data.

[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The term has had so many definitions its not really meaningful.

To a normie, turning the pull tab on a beverage can around so that it holds a straw is a "hack."

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[–] Zephorah@discuss.online 38 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Reading these incredible comments has revealed a large piece of what was named as the reason for lemm.ee shutting down.

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[–] dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone 75 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (44 children)

The replies in this thread are disturbing, giving me a sense that Lemmy has a misogyny problem; maybe I was naïve, but I expected outrage about 4chan doxxing women trying to protect one another, instead I see lots of revenge enjoyment as if being doxxed on 4chan is justice for ... warning one another about dangerous men they encounter when dating?

The inability to empathize and take seriously the threats posed to women or to understand their motivation to protect one another is alarming.

There is no good faith extended, but also no evidence presented that instead of safety the app was just for gossip, it's just taken as assumed that women are wrong for using Tea and they all deserve to be doxxed.

[–] SonOfAntenora@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Apparently the platform operated as some sort of gossipping/reporting system where unaware men and guys could be posted, so they could basicallly do the same thing that happened to them, all on one if the most unsafe system possible.

Honestly I see this as a consequence of their own actions mostly the database was unprotected. Their purpose was to document men behind their back. Turns out it backfired.

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[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 43 points 2 days ago (5 children)

It isn't the women who are wrong; it's the app developer and 4chan. But setting aside the data breach, creating a Yelp for dating is a ticking time bomb. They were going to get sued out the ass, data breach or no data breach. I don't know how many times this needs to happen, but I guess web developers have the memory of goldfish. There have been several attempts at something similar that got shut down for the obvious reasons. Making a website that rates human beings is always going to be a legal minefield.

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[–] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Lemmy is full of people with a lot of technical knowledge, who look down on anyone without it. Just look at their responses to someone complaining and an issue on Windows, it's just a hundred people telling you what Linux distro they use.

It's not so much mysogyny, they just can't pass up the opportunity to be smug about something.

[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago

it's just a hundred people telling you what Linux distro they use.

Oh come on, Lemmy doesn't have that many users!

/s

[–] joel_feila@lemmy.world 28 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Well lets be honest if someone made a gender inverse version ofctea many people would b concerned about what is being shared on the app. Honestly i find tesla disturbing and the 4 chan doxing dangerous. Both sides can be bad.

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[–] Gemini24601@lemmy.world 31 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The Tea app is agnostic. While its purpose and main use case was made for the safety of women in the dating scene, it was inevitably used to spread exaggerated or misleading information about otherwise innocent men. Imagine being a privacy-conscious individual, and breaking up with a toxic woman. She could go on to spread lies about you and even upload pictures of you to the reverse image search/ai. So even if you were doing everything right from a privacy standpoint, you’d still end up in someone’s private database, subjected to ai training, shared with the government, or who knows what. While I do see the purpose of apps like these, they can effectively take away someone’s privacy/dignity without them even knowing about it. Now imagine being a 4channer, someone probably even more privacy-conscious than lemmings, and possibly experiencing mental disorders like paranoid schizophrenia or autism; of course they’re drawn to hacking an app that would destroy their privacy. They are not sane individuals, so this event really was inevitable.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 10 points 1 day ago

Look at the screenshot in the article. That's what their website looks like, it absolutely looks like it's focusing on gossiping rather than women's safety on dates.

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[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 34 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Never upload PII to social media

Your privacy is not legally protected.

[–] seejur@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Tell that to UK citizens. They have to. To be "protected". The irony

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