Tea dating app disables DMs after second data breach exposes 1.1M private messages

If you thought the recent scandal around Tea’s data breach couldn’t get any worse, think again. Just days after the exposure of 72,000 images, including selfies and photo IDs submitted during sign-up, the situation has escalated with the discovery of a second database containing over 1.1 million private messages. In response, the platform has temporarily disabled DMs across the platform.

The newly exposed data includes highly sensitive conversations between users discussing topics like abortions, cheating partners, and even personal phone numbers. Many chats also mention real names and social media handles, making it alarmingly easy to identify those involved. Security researcher Kasra Rahjerdi told 404Media that attackers could not only read the messages but also send push notifications through the app.

At this point it might not even need to be said, but if you or someone you know still has an active Tea account, deleting it immediately and updating any reused passwords elsewhere is strongly advised, though realistically, your data is likely already out there.