Apple Pulls Tea Dating Apps After Privacy Scandal

Apple has removed the viral dating apps Tea and TeaOnHer from its App Store around the world for violating user privacy and content moderation rules. The change comes after months of scrutiny on the apps over their data practices that permitted users to publicly label (and in some cases see other identifying and potentially sensitive information about) people they specifically dated.

Why Apple Took Action Against Tea and TeaOnHer Apps

App analytics company Appfigures first reported on the removals, which were later confirmed by TechCrunch. Apple requires apps that host user-generated content to include features for reporting harmful or objectionable content, blocking abusive users, and even filtering out certain categories of postings. Apple found that the apps weren’t up to snuff on a few of those safeguards, and also flagged issues with using or sharing people’s data without permission as well as with customer feedback signals.

Apple says it flagged the issues with developers before removing the apps when a fix did not arrive. Tea and TeaOnHer’s creators could not be reached for comment. At the time of publication, both apps are still available on Google Play — highlighting the variation in enforcement thresholds applied by the big app stores.

Data leaks raised red flags about Tea and TeaOnHer privacy

The privacy concerns about Tea had boiled over earlier this year after vast caches of user-submitted material appeared on the internet. Leaks of over 72,000 images, including photo IDs and selfies as well as screenshots of messages and comments, were described by security researchers and in news reports. TeaOnHer was also accused of leaking sensitive personal data, with TechCrunch claiming that government IDs were exposed because the app had been implemented insecurely.

These episodes cut to the heart of Apple’s privacy rules, which forbid amassing or using personal information without specific customer consent and include security protocols for handling extremely sensitive identifiers. Beyond platform policy, the exposure risk is high: dating data can be used to harass, dox, or extort, and it’s hard for a victim to scrub their information from the internet once it goes public.

How these apps worked and the risks they created

Tea, which went live in 2023 and gained popularity this year, gave women the opportunity to post experiences they’ve had with specific men, complete with ratings that ranged from “green flag” to “red flag.” TeaOnHer came as a men’s mirror to talk about women. Both apps were designed to elicit highly personal comments about identifiably real people — who frequently appeared in photographs and whose full names were often used along with other identifying details — effectively creating a toxic blend of reputation scoring and public shaming.

That model brings a lot of privacy pain points: the insufficient consent of the people being discussed, ambiguous data retention policies, and limited remedies for removal or appeal. It also increases the potential for libel and cyberbullying. The company has rules in place for user-generated content that demand strong reporting features, proactive moderation, and tools to block bad actors — rules that seem to have been inconsistently or inadequately enforced in practice.

What Apple’s removals mean for app developers and UGC

Apple’s action is a reminder that virality does not circumvent the rules. The firm’s annual security updates consistently highlight tough reviews for privacy, fraud, and user safety, and Apple has said it rejects millions of submissions every year that do not meet its standards. For apps predicated on private user content, developers should anticipate increased attention and swifter removals if problems continue.

A user-friendly checklist for UGC and dating apps would include:

• An explicit consent flow for sharing personal data
• In-app tools to report, block, and appeal
• Responsive takedown workflows
• Data minimization and encryption of IDs and selfies
• Verified age and identity checks with vetted vendors
• A trustworthy privacy disclosure

Advice from organizations such as OWASP on mobile security, combined with privacy-by-design procedures, may assist in reducing the misconfigurations that continually allow exposures to occur.

Market fallout and clone risks after the App Store ban

Despite the removals, similarly named options have appeared on Apple’s charts in the United States, underscoring a whack-a-mole dynamic for moderation. That adds pressure for app stores to police clones and near-clones that introduce the same risks under different branding.

For users, the immediate worry is data exposure. If you uploaded an ID or personal media to Tea or TeaOnHer, consider the following steps:

• Reach out to the developers and request deletion of your data
• Monitor your identity and accounts for signs of misuse
• Repeat these requests and checks on other connected services where your uploads may have been copied

Privacy advocates also suggest being wary of platforms that ask for government documents without specific policies about how they’re stored, who has access, and when data is destroyed.

What comes next for Tea apps, developers, and regulators

The developers can try to make a comeback in the App Store by fixing Apple’s findings and resubmitting. At the same time, regulators have signaled increased awareness of and scrutiny over platforms that deal in sensitive personal information, and dating apps often come under fire for the very personal act of sharing data upon which they are built.

Apple’s action sends a clear message to this category: If an app empowers public ratings of identifiable people, it will be held to a high standard for consent, security, and moderation. Anything less threatens to get pulled so quickly it won’t matter how high up the charts it peaks.