Overlook ChatGPT. Tea is probably the most downloaded app on Apple’s App Retailer.
Probably the most downloaded free app on Apple’s App Retailer at the moment is not ChatGPT, Threads or Google. It is Tea, a relationship recommendation app that lets girls evaluation males they’ve gone out with, in addition to warn different single girls about dates they declare went awry.
Tea Courting Recommendation, an app for serving to girls vet their dates, can be a prime app on the Google Play Retailer, the place it has been downloaded greater than 100,000 instances.
The app’s maker says it provides a measure of safety for customers that conventional relationship apps do not. Tea does not match singles with potential dates; somewhat, it is a spot for ladies to share details about males they’ve dated. Tea lets customers run background checks on potential matches, examine to see if they’ve felony information or seem on intercourse offender databases, and extra, all by way of the app.
The app additionally ensures that customers who join are girls by requesting that they submit a selfie for verification. That is geared toward defending customers towards so-called catfishing schemes, wherein individuals create faux on-line personas, typically as a part of a scheme to defraud others.
Tea declined to remark for this text.
Security in numbers
To make certain, many of the options that Tea provides exist already. Social media boards, such because the Fb group referred to as “Are we relationship the identical man?,” additionally let girls examine notes about their dates in a neighborhood discussion board. The primary distinction: scale. Tea has greater than 1.6 million customers, in response to its web site.
“What this app appears to be doing is centralizing all that into one very massive neighborhood,” Doug Zytko, an affiliate professor on the College of Michigan-Flint who researches human-computer interactions for security, advised CBS MoneyWatch.
Zytko, who has extensively studied relationship app designs, stated that security “has not been prioritized” for many such instruments available in the market, which he stated helps clarify why Tea has struck a chord with girls.
“The relationship app security options that exist are largely reactive in nature. They are not about retaining individuals protected, however are punitive actions one can take after one thing has occurred,” he added.
Zytko additionally acknowledged the issues of some males, voiced on boards like Reddit, that Tea customers might share false details about them.
“If inaccurate details about a person is being shared, that damages his relationship prospects and social popularity,” Zytko stated. “That is scary, however it’s not a purpose to low cost the app.”
One other potential threat is one widespread to all social media platform, and digital info extra broadly. Tea confirmed to CBS Information that its app was hacked Friday morning, with unhealthy actors accessing an information storage system containing info, together with selfies, that members had uploaded previous to February 2024.
Moreover, hackers accessed virtually 60,000 pictures from posts, plus feedback and direct messages, the corporate stated.
“Tea has engaged third-party cybersecurity specialists and are working across the clock to safe its techniques,” the corporate stated in an announcement, noting that it’s investigating the incident. “Presently, there isn’t a proof to recommend that further consumer knowledge was affected.”
