Selfie Leak Nightmare: Women’s Photos from Tea App Used in AI Risks.

 Massive Data Breach at Popular Dating App 'Tea' Exposes 72,000 Images, Including Private User Selfies

A major privacy crisis has erupted after Tea, the viral women-focused dating advice app, confirmed a data storage breach that exposed 72,000 user images — including over 13,000 sensitive selfies used for identity verification.

Tea, known for its unique approach to allowing women to anonymously share safety information about men they date, has now found itself under scrutiny after it revealed that the breach affected users who signed up before February 2024.

Verification Selfies, Supposedly Deleted, Were Accessed

To create an account, Tea users must upload a selfie to "verify that you are a woman" — a
measure intended to keep the platform safe. The app claimed these selfies were deleted after account approval. However, the breach shows otherwise.

Approximately 13,000 of the compromised images were from this private verification process. Another 59,000 images came from posts, comments, and direct messages — many of which were publicly viewable in the app.

Experts Warn: Selfies Are the New Cyber Target

Cybersecurity professionals say the danger goes far beyond embarrassment. Rachel Tobac, CEO of SocialProof Security, warned that selfies, especially when paired with other identifiers, can become powerful tools for hackers to bypass biometric security on bank accounts or impersonate users.

“It’s not just a photo — it’s a key to your digital life,” said Tobac. She advised impacted users to freeze their credit, delete themselves from data broker sites, and activate multi-factor authentication immediately.

Richard Blech, CEO of AI security firm XSOC Corp, added that stolen selfies can be exploited in AI-driven attacks such as deepfakes, facial recognition spoofing, and identity fraud — all without the user's knowledge.

“Biometric data doesn’t expire,” Blech warned. “You can’t change your face. Once it’s out, it’s out forever.”

More Data, More Danger

The breach reignites criticism over tech companies collecting sensitive biometric data in the name of "safety." Albert Fox Cahn of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project called the situation “predictable and dangerous.”

“We all know online dating can be toxic, but the solution isn’t more surveillance,” said Cahn. “The best protection we have is to not hand over this data in the first place.”

A Pattern of Dating App Vulnerabilities

Tea joins a growing list of dating platforms with serious security failures. In 2014, Tinder suffered a flaw that exposed users’ physical locations. In 2015, Ashley Madison’s data breach revealed intimate personal details of millions. And as governments now push for tighter age and ID verification laws, security experts fear such policies only deepen the risks.