I joined the security. My address leaked and shared

Sally is stalked by her ex-boyfriend.

After ending their relationship, he will be at work-even her friend’s house. She eventually had to move.

She was alert when she finally returned to the date scene. She decided to sign up for a new app where women can do background checks and share experiences of the men they dated.

If a potential partner is married or registered sex offender, only users of the American Tea Dating Advice app available in the United States can be marked.

They can run reverse image searches to use fake identities to fight people. It is also possible to mark men as red or green flags and share unproven gossip.

The app was founded in 2023, but in the U.S., it climbed the chart to No. 1 in July this year. It reportedly attracted more than one million users.

Sally’s name has been changed to protect her identity and he thinks it’s interesting to read about the men in her area. But she found it to be “gossip”, and some of the information was unreliable.

In late July, The app was hacked. More than 70,000 images were leaked and posted on the online message board 4chan – including the user’s ID and selfies, which were originally intended for verification purposes only and were “delete immediately”.

The leak was caught by a group of misogynistic online and within a few hours several websites were created to humiliate the women who signed up.

Two maps were posted on social media showing 33,000 pins distributed in the United States. Worried about the worst, Sally zooms in and looks for her home.

She found this – although it had no connection to her name, her exact address was for anyone to see.

She was worried that her stalker former partner could track her now. “He didn’t know where I was or where I worked, and I tried my best to keep that way,” she said. “I was scared.”

The BBC reminded Google of two maps hosted on Google Maps that claimed to represent the location of the women who signed up for tea.

The company said the maps violated their harassment policy and deleted them. More than 10 women have filed class action lawsuits against companies that own tea since the breach.

A spokesperson for Tea App said they are “working to identify and notify users involved in their personal information and notify them in accordance with applicable laws” that affected users will be “provided with identity theft and credit monitoring services.”

They also say they “support resources” to enhance the security of current membership, why do they feel proud of it [they’ve] build, “their mission is more important than ever”.

Since the breach, the BBC has found a website, an app, and even a “game” containing leaked data that encourages harassment of women who join the app.

The “game” allows women to face-to-face selfies to instruct users to click on their favorite selfies and use the “Top 50” and “Bottom 50” rankings. The BBC cannot identify the creator of the website.

Users outside of the misogynistic community are also reposting content to make women look on X and Tiktok.

Male imitation tea applications have also surged – but men are not advised to do so for safety. Instead, users posted harshly derogatory comments about women.

In the screen recording seen by the BBC, users commented on women’s sexual behavior without the consent in their app.

The BBC has also identified more than 10 “tea” groups on the messaging app Telegram, where men share sexual behavior and AI-generated female images for others to evaluate or gossip. They posted women’s social media handles revealing their identities.

A telegraph spokesman said that illegal pornography is “exclusively prohibited” and “delete upon discovery.”

John Yanchunis, the attorney representing one of the companies that own the app, said she suffered a huge online abuse.

“It caused a huge emotional distress,” he told the BBC. “She became the subject of ridicule.”

It’s not surprising that the leak is exploited.

The app has attracted criticism since it has grown in popularity. Defamation, the spread of unconfirmed allegations, when someone posts information without his consent, defamation is the real possibility.

Male groups were going to fall the app down – when they discovered a data breach, they saw it as a chance to retribution.

“The leak in the misogynistic community is a big reason, and it’s obviously a big reason,” said Callum Hood, head of research at the Center for Counterattacks on Digital Hate.

He added that from July 23, three days before the leak to August 12, more than 12,000 posts on 4chan quoted the tea dating app.

Online, Tea app leaked part of what is known as the “Gender War” and the last straw in a heterosexual dating.

There is growing evidence that heterosexual young people are moving away from traditional dating and long-term romantic relationships.

Negative experiences in online dating add to these tensions.

A 2023 Pew study found that in the United States, half of women’s experiences on dating apps are negative, women are more likely to report unnecessary behaviors in men and feel unsafe about dating apps.

Dr. Jenny Van Hooff, a sociologist at Metropolitan University in Manchester, said the lack of security affects how many young women may want to go online dating.

Unlike meeting with a partner through a friend or work, it has less impact on poor behavior online dating.

“Women’s experience of opposite sex on dating apps is a feeling of fear and lack of trust,” she said. “Misophobia is just getting more and more entrenched in dating.”

The tea app’s former avatars, such as “We Are Dating the Same Man” social media groups with thousands of followers, have been around the world for many years.

At first, they were called a new way to hold men accountable. But, like tea, the controversy that followed, many men were misrepresented by what they posted.

Tea App reportedly takes this concept to a new scale.

However, experts also questioned the possible profit motivation behind the app and the credibility of the information posted.

Verifying information can be challenging for women who want to use the app safely. Meanwhile, men who cannot access the app cannot know if false information about them has been posted.

Dr. Van Hooff said the leak “proves the meaning of women is why they think the application is necessary”.

“Absolutely, these women have no idea about men and men’s behavior.”

She believes that women’s safety has been compromised and that men think their actions are taken out of the context and exploited as gossip.

For Sally, the leak affected her sense of protection.

“I moved with my loved ones just to feel safe,” she said.