The Tea dating advice app — an initially women-only, anonymous platform for rating men — gained popularity at Tulane University despite controversy over its privacy policies and user verification process.

The mission of the app was to offer women a platform to share information, reviews and photos about men they have dated to warn or encourage other women. It aimed “to give women the tools they need to date safely in a world that often overlooks their protection,” according to the company’s mission statement.

The app was removed from the Apple App Store last month for failing to meet Apple’s requirements regarding content moderation and data privacy.

Released in ​​2023, the app was created by Sean Cook after he witnessed his mother’s experience with online dating, where she was catfished and engaged with men who had criminal records. To address the problem, Cook and the app’s other creators implemented a gender identification system, which uses facial photos uploaded by women users. Then, based on location, women can see the number of green and red flags of men in their area, write reviews of men and upload men’s profiles to the forum. 

However, the gender identification system is not foolproof.

“I took a picture of my face, and I guess I looked feminine … I wanted to see if I was on it or any of my friends,” said first-year Reese Cohen, a man who successfully infiltrated the app. 

Despite the app’s mission statement that “women should never have to compromise their safety while dating,” the company detected unauthorized access to around 72,000 images on July 25. Around 13,000 of these images were the photos women used to confirm their gender after downloading the app, despite Tea’s privacy policy stating that the photos confirming gender are deleted after users are verified. 

“Someone’s red flag might not be a red flag for another girl. So it could be a little deceiving,” first-year Beau DeWitt said.

“It’s really bad … I have friends that are on it and would post stuff about me that isn’t true,” first-year Ari Lissauer said. “It can ruin people’s perception about other people, and it’s also mean and judgmental.”

Despite the controversy, some students said the app is a helpful safety measure for women. 

“I think it’s honestly a very useful tool for girls if they want to suss out a guy before interacting with them. I think it’s a really safe way and a good way to do it,” DeWitt said.

Lisa Wade, associate professor of sociology and gender and sexuality studies, has studied hookup culture for the past 15 years. She said that hateful comments on the app reflect problems within hookup culture. 

“I think [the Tea app] indicates a lot of distress because people feel like they have to resort to something like that to be safe and comfortable, and that should set off alarm bells,” Wade said.