There Are No Girls on the Internet - Tea App Didn’t Just Spill Data; It Endangered Women

Episode Date: July 29, 2025

The Tea App promised a safe, anonymous space for women to share personal experiences with men they dated. Instead, it leaked their private data.    There’s tons of inaccurate, fear mongering information about the leak out there. So in this episode, we’ll break down what happened with the Tea App leak, why it matters, and what it reveals about tech’s ongoing failure to take women’s privacy seriously.    A Second Tea Breach Reveals Users’ DMs About Abortions and Cheating: https://www.404media.co/a-second-tea-breach-reveals-users-dms-about-abortions-and-cheating/   Women Dating Safety App 'Tea' Breached, Users' IDs Posted to 4chan: https://www.404media.co/women-dating-safety-app-tea-breached-users-ids-posted-to-4chan/   Miami New Times’ longread on Girl Don’t Date Him: https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/blind-date-6335973   Tea: Inside the new app where women anonymously review men: https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/68302/1/tea-the-new-app-where-women-anonymously-review-men   'It's fun watching you burn': Man suing women for defamation actually harassed them on dating apps, defendants say: https://lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/its-fun-watching-you-burn-man-suing-women-for-defamation-actually-harassed-them-on-dating-apps-defendants-say/ If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at [e-mail]!    Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week. instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/  tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc  youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Run a business and not thinking about podcasting. Think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than adds supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, IHeart's twice as large as the next two combined. Learn how podcasting can help your

business. Call 844-844-I-Hart. Why are we all so obsessed with romance? On the radio 831 podcast, join us, Sanjana Basker and Tyler McCall. As we unpack all the trending tropes, fuzzy adaptations, book talk drama, and celebrity love stories with hot takes and sharp guests. Each episode digs into what these stories reveal about desire, fantasy, identity, and how we love now. Listen to the Radio 831 podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, it's Edwin Castro, also known as Castro 1021. And I'm Conky, his best friend and business manager. And we've got a new show called The 1021 Podcast. I'm taking you behind the scenes on how I became one of Twitch's most popular streamers. We also love sports. And with the World Cup right around the corner, we'll be breaking down the biggest storylines ahead of the big tournament here in the USA. Listen to the 1021 podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. There are no girls on the internet as a production of IHeart Radio and Unbossed Creative. I'm Bridget Todd, and this is There Are No Girls on the Internet. In last week's News Roundup, one of the stories that we cut for time was about the T-dating app for women. At the time when we were recording, the story was still pretty simple, just that this dating app that had quietly existed for two years, had rocketed to the top of Apple's App Store because it was getting a ton of attention on social media. From people making videos on platforms like TikTok about how the app played into gender dynamics around women who date men. I was seeing posts on TikTok about the T-App from my own city here in D.C.

About how some women were using it to talk about legitimately abusive behavior from men, while other women were using it to talk about sort of commonplace dating annoyances like men who don't text back or men who ghost. And how conflating those two things on one app is probably not great. According to the people who run the T-app, all of these kinds of potes were really driving a ton of attention. Which is not at all surprising because gender war stuff will always generate engagement. That attention was both positive and negative, with a lot of men complaining about how this app was unfair.

But in the economy of the internet, it really doesn't matter because it's all engagement either way. So everybody was talking about this app, and it became number one on the app store in the lifestyle category. The company said that something like 1 million people had downloaded the app in just a few weeks alone. Censor Tower, a marketing intelligence firm that tracks app data, estimated that the downloads of the app increased 185% in the first 20 days of July compared with June of that same period. The company that makes the app said on social media that they had gotten over 4 million female users with a waiting list of approximately 900,000 new prospective users.

There is a waiting list because before women can use the app, they have to be verified. This will be important for later. So as recently as last Thursday night, when we were recording the News Roundup, That was really the main gist of what was going on. So we ended up not talking about it at all because there was a lot of other important stuff going on and I kind of just ran out of time. But now, I am glad that we did not talk about it because right after we published that episode, the T app experienced a pretty major data breach. So let's talk about what the T app is, what exactly happened, the gendered history of online platforms like the T app and what I think it all means. So what exactly is the T app?

I want to spend some time on how it works before we get into the data breach. It's a dating app that's kind of like the Yelp if you were rating men instead of restaurants. So not a dating app that helps you match with people to date, but an app that tries to help you make more informed dating choices. Women can anonymously share information about the experiences that they've had with specific men to help inform other women. The key here is the anonymity. When you first join the app, you're told that it is totally and completely anonymous. and that screenshoting the app is not possible. If you try to take a screenshot, you'll get a black screen.

Though you can obviously still take a photo of the app with an additional device, which people do pretty often. On the T app, you can even describe a guy's behavior and have other women weigh in on whether you should keep seeing him or not. Women assign men red flags for problematic behavior and green flags for good behavior. Basically, it's a digital whisper network in the form of an app for women to post photos of men and talk about whatever they might know about that man.

You know, like sub-billing the T. So what separates the T app from other kinds of platforms like this is that it kind of bills itself as an app for women's safety. They gave 10% of their proceeds to the National Domestic Violence Hotline. And even though the app is free, users get five free searches each month. After that, they're given a choice. Pay for T's $15 a month subscription or invite friends to keep using it for free. So basically invite your girlfriends to have their data breached as well.

All kidding aside, it's actually kind of a smart strategy for a growing app, especially one that is so dependent on having a large user base of women able to weigh in on the men in any particular area. For apps like this, users are basically as good as cash, so either pay up for the premium version or invite your girlfriends. The T app promises that women who date men can make sure your date is safe, not a catfish or not in a relationship. According to T's marketing materials,

the app's founder, Sean Cook, who formerly was a product manager at Salesforce and Shutterfly, launched the app because he witnessed his own mother's terrifying experience with online dating. He said she was catfished and unknowingly engaged with men who had criminal records. He teamed up with a social media creator named Daniela Satella, who came on as the T-Aps social media director, who created a buz-pun-pink-and-purple, Gen Z-friendly social media presence for the app.

The website says that T is on a mission to revolutionize dating safety by equipping women with cutting-edge tools, real-time insights, and a powerful community to navigate the modern dating world with confidence and control. At its core, the site says, T is built on one fundamental belief. Women should never have to compromise their safety while dating. So users anonymously post photos of men they're dating and asking others if they have any tea on them.

Users can also turn on notification alerts to see if a specific name is mentioned on the app. So if I meet Joe Blow on the street and I want to keep tag, on whether or not he shows up on the T app, I can set a notification alert for his name. Other tools on the app allow users to run background checks, search for criminal records, and reverse image search for photos

in the hopes of spotting catfishing, or people passing off photos of other people as themselves. If this premise sounds kind of familiar, it's because it's very similar to those are we dating the same guy pages on social media, which you might recall sparked lawsuits. Last year, a Chicago man sued META, as well as women who dated him and their parents,

women who commented on Facebook posts about him, in a Facebook group, and the moderators of the group for defamation, invasion of privacy, doxing, and more. The complaint was dismissed. And similarly, a man in L.A. filed a lawsuit against 50 women. The man, Stuart Lucas Murray, sued 50 women for defamation,

liable, sex-based discrimination, and other allegations. All stemming from their posts in the Facebook group are we dating the same guy. Some of the women that he sued had never even met him only commented on the Facebook post with things like, oh, wow, and he sued them too. This situation is pretty interesting. I would actually recommend Googling Stuart Lucas-Marie because he has a pretty prolific public profile. I won't say much more than that because, in my opinion, he seems like a pretty litigious guy, but it is an interesting Google. So one of the defendants in that suit described the accusations as baseless, emphasized that.

that the group serves as a platform for sharing personal experiences with men and opinions, which she says are protected from defamation. Here's a little bit of their press conference. As myself and my fellow co-defendants were just speaking their truth, and unfortunately for him, it was, again, not favorable. So he somehow found those comments that we did make. Again, they were factual, and they were based in our true experiences. He found those comments, and decided to come forth with this lawsuit with his claims of defamation, which we feel are invalid because there is no evidence that we know of that would exist in support of his claims. So just like that Chicago case, this case was also dismissed.

But even still, Facebook really started cracking down on those are we dating the same guy pages, where women would dish about men on Facebook, which is pretty ironic considering Mark Zuckerberg originally conceptualized the idea of Facebook to rate the looks of the women that he called dogs in his college dorm. But in any event, a lot of those groups are being pushed off of Facebook, which is why apps like the T app have popped up in their place. This kind of Yelp for People thing may seem novel,

but it's actually not a new idea at all. There was an app back in 2012 called Lulu, which integrated with Facebook to let you rate men that you've dated and judge them on what other people. women say about them. It was actually pretty similar to the T-Ap in that when a Facebook user joined Lulu, it pulled the names of the men that they knew in their network, and if a user decided to rate them, it would generate a public-facing page announcing that that man had been reviewed. Originally, that page featured Batman's name and photograph pulled from his Facebook account.

So Lulu was kind of similar to the T-F, but it was really more about rating men in bed, like a cheeky way of being like, oh, this guy has hashtag big feet, and less about trying to keep women safe from abuse. Lulu was eventually acquired and shut down. Its Wikipedia page says it was described in popular press as sexist and objectifying, non-consensual and shallow and mean. I also remember way back in the early 2000s, there was this big splash about a site called Girl Don't Date Him

that advertised itself as a kind of credit report for men. The site's founder, Tasha Joseph, was kind of a fast-talkin lady and she was always going on entertainment news shows to talk about dating. And I actually remember that site got quite a lot of good press, but it went just about as well as you might expect. The Miami New Times wrote an interesting piece in 2006 about how somebody fabricated a very sensational story about a horrible man who sexually assaulted a woman that later led to her death by suicide. The story was completely fabricated, but posted on the site without proof, and it kind of went proto-viral. But the torrid tale was a total lie just to prove a point.

The person who wrote that fake post said, the bottom line is that this website is dangerous. And the chances of a visitor reading some bullshit story like the one that I posted about someone they know are great. The Miami New Times also profiled a man on the site who was accused of sexually assaulting a woman, but later it's revealed that he's actually never had sex with a woman because he's gay. And that the person who wrote that post

was actually a former co-worker of his who was making false reports on the site to harass him. In 2006, a Pennsylvania attorney filed a suit against the website's owner. as well as two alleged posters and five unidentified women for various claims that they made about him that he asserted were false and defamatory. The suit was initially dismissed in Pennsylvania for lack of personal jurisdiction. But in 2007, that man brought a second lawsuit in federal court in Florida, which was settled after the judge refused to dismiss the new case.

The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Girl Don't Date him eventually pivoted to publishing articles about safer dating practices until it was shut down entirely. So if you're wondering, wouldn't a similar platform like the T app just potentially turn into a breeding ground for defamation and harassment? I had the very same thought because you don't actually need any proof about what is being posted to the app. Anyone can basically say anything about anyone. Though we do know that statistically speaking, it is quite rare for women to lie about abuse.

T support team stresses that they had a zero tolerance policy for defamatory content and that they ask anyone on the receiving end of this to get in touch with them. But of course they would say that. I actually haven't seen much about how they handle it when someone does get in touch about alleged defamation. I would be curious to know. And I think given the popularity and the attention of the TAP, I would guess that that's probably something we'll be hearing more about in the next coming weeks or months. Let's take a quick break.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guide, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and headwriters, Streeter Seidel, help an acapella band with their between songs banter. There's that worst singer in the group? The worst? Yeah.

Me. Is there anything to the idea that because you're from Harvard, you only got in because your parents made a huge donation. The group. The yard birds, right? That's the name. The Harvard yard, but they're open. Do you have a name suggestion?

We're open. Since you guys are middle aged. One erection Listen to humor me with Robert Smygel and Friends On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Humor me I need some jokes to make me seem funny Run a business and not thinking about podcasting, think again.

More Americans listen to podcasts than ads supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, IHearts twice as large as the next two combined. So whatever your customers listen to, they'll hear your message. Plus, only IHeart can extend your message to audiences across broadcast radio. Think podcasting can help your business. Think IHard. Streaming, radio, and podcasting. Call 844-844-I-Hart to get started.

That's 844-Ehart. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves,

I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense.

And when IT's friends stop by like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash will get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers while he got the ball. Like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick.

Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There are times when the mind becomes a difficult place to live. This is David Eagleman with the Inner Cosmos podcast. and for Mental Health Awareness Month, we're dedicating a series to understanding the mind when it struggles.

I'm joined by doctors, researchers, and those with lived experience. We'll talk with singer-songwriter Jewel about anxiety. I started living in my car, and then my car got stolen. I was shoplifting. I was having panic attacks. I was agoraphobic. And making it through hardship. To be present is a learned skill, and it's hard to be present.

We'll talk with John Nelson about clinical depression and the brain implant that saved his life. What I learned is that procedure made me happy because I'm disease-free. And we'll talk with leading experts like Judd Brewer about anxiety and John Hirschfield about obsessive-compulsive disorder and the science of how the brain can change. This is a month of deeply personal and honest conversations about what happens when the brain goes off course and what we can. can do about it. Listen to Inner Cosmos on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. At our back. Listeners probably know that I have kind of a complicated relationship with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the controversial law that says that social media platforms are not liable for the content posted by users. Now, we have had experts on the show who have

both defended Section 230 as a critical law for protecting the open internet, and we've had other experts on the show who have argued that it should be repealed because it lets platforms off the hook for hosting things like hate speech. So needless to say, it's complicated. But as of today, Section 230 is still the law of the land. So thanks to Section 230, the T-Apf itself is protected from being liable for the content posted on the platform. And according to Elliot Williams, a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the Justice Department and current legal analyst for CNN, in the case of individual users, establishing malicious intent, which is required in a defamation lawsuit,

might be kind of tricky because they could always argue that their aim was to protect other women and not to harm someone. But as you might imagine, the app's premise was immediately polarizing along the lines of gender war stuff. Some praised it as a useful way to warn women about the dangerous behavior of men, while others called it divisive in a violation of men's privacy. Here's what the CEO had to say on the release, podcast. We receive probably about three legal threats a day from different men that are disappointed

that women have told largely true stories about them on these apps. And so they are upset that they've done something bad to a woman and that a woman has told people about it. And we have a full legal team that helps us navigate those situations and all of the way that we operate is well within legal guidelines. And then, you know, there's also a whole men's rights activism community that doesn't like what we're doing. And so they're constantly trying to tear us down and organize, you know, mass petitions to take us down and mass reporting of us on the app store to try to take us down. So, you know, we have a lot of people that are unhappy about what we're doing. And, and that's okay with us. You know, we believe that women deserve to be able to share their stories and to be able to

have safe, you know, relationships. So I obviously don't discom. agree with him that women should be able to have safe relationships. But it really highlights the question, are apps like the T-app, the digital version of a whisper network and a way for women to inform each other about potential abusers, stalkers, and catfishes? Or is it an app for women to gossip about men, potentially defame them and put those men at risk? Here's how Dazed puts it in a piece that was written before news of the data breach, which we'll get to in a moment. For some, the app is a vital resource, a way to alert other women to the predators and abusers lurking undetected in the dating pool. Unlike anything else out there, this is an app designed with women's safety, awareness,

and empowerment as its top priority, reads one review on the app store. It goes beyond basic dating protection and truly provides a layer of defense against liars, cheaters, shammers, and even predators. Another reviewer says they're glad to have a means of warning other women about her abusive ex. He's attractive, smart, and charming. You'd never know it. For so long, I was hoping for a way to warn other women off of them. So I do think this is legitimately very important, and I don't want to dismiss this. Marginalized people especially have been making use of whisper networks since forever. Gossip and information sharing can be a real tool for women to keep ourselves and our community safe when it doesn't always feel like we have access to more traditional forms of safety.

So I get it. There is a real need for this kind of information sharing. And I think the popularity of the T-Ap shows that women really do feel. like they need ways to arm themselves with information to feel safer when dating. When you think about how common things like sexual abuse actually are, it makes complete sense to me why women would flock to something that says that it's offering them a feeling like they can put their safety in their own hands by searching a guy on the T app before they let him into their lives. But an app offering women's safety then lying to them and betraying those women by failing to follow the most basic steps that keeping them safe is not it. And when you look at what happened

with this breach, we really are talking about women's actual safety here, not just theoretically. So let's talk about the breach. I mentioned the app it's only for women. So in order to verify your gender, anyone signing up to the app needs to submit a selfie. But in earlier iterations of this app, in addition to a selfie, women also had to submit their driver's licenses. One of my big questions was how the app deals with trans women or non-binary people. The app does not disallow trans women. I'm not totally sure about non-binary people. And let's not dive too much into the binary of the app,

verifying one's gender to keep men out. But if this is something that you've had experience with, please let me know you can shoot me a DM or email us at hello at tango.com. So once your information is submitted to the T app, then there is a waiting period up to 17 hours or more if a lot of people are trying to sign up for the app at the same time as you. Now, T said that in 2023, it removed the requirement for photo ID in addition to the selfie. So now you just submit a selfie.

But that bit about having to submit your driver's license is going to be pretty key here. So on Friday night, after the news roundup is published and live in the world, your girl is happily two margaritas deep at the bar. And the folks who run the T app said that there had been a data breach of a legacy storage system holding data for its users. This came after the app angered some men and prompted a thread on the extremist-troll message board 4chan in which users called for a hack and leak campaign of the T-app. A spokesperson for the T-app confirmed all of this to Lifehacker, saying,

T-identified unauthorized access to one of its systems and immediately launched a full investigation to assess the scope and impact. The initial results of this effort suggests that the incident involved a legacy data storage system containing information from over two years ago. Approximately 72,000 images, including approximately 13,000 images of selfies and photo identification submitted during the verification, and 59,000 images publicly viewable in the app from posts, comments, and direct messages were accessed without authorization.

So, yeah, that includes about 13,000 images of women's driver's licenses that they submitted back when that was a requirement to join the app. And also, posts, comments, and direct messages in the apps were also part of this breach. Now, here's kind of a key detail. According to T's privacy policy, the selfies that it requires from people signing up for the app are deleted shortly after those users are verified. But that obviously was not happening, or at least it wasn't happening with the images that were included in that breach.

According to the New York Times, rather than being deleted like the privacy policy said would happen, that data was stored, quote, in compliance with law enforcement, requirements related to cyberbullying prevention. T-Said in a statement, and that data was not moved to newer systems that T-Said were better fortified. So basically, the T-app lied to its users about the privacy policies that it was taking. It's also not clear what law enforcement requirements are talking about. I've got to admit, it kind of sounds like a pretty convenient dodge to me, but I'm not totally

sure. When the breach initially happened, the company said that the only people impacted were those who signed up before February 2024. But on Monday, 404 Media reported that there was a second major security issue impacting women who had signed up and used the app much more recently.

Basically, the T-app exposed much more user data than was initially reported, with an independent security researcher now finding that it was possible for hackers to access really sensitive direct messages between users. Kashra Vajardi, the researcher who flagged the issue to

404 media, sent a database of more than 1.1 million messages they said stretch from early 2023 to as recently as last week. And some of the private messages viewed by 404 media that hackers could have had access to included very sensitive stuff, conversations about having had abortions, information about cheating partners, and even messages that included people's phone numbers. Despite T's initial statement that the only thing impacted was information from over two years ago, the researcher also said that they found the ability to send a push notification to all of T's users. Like, it is hard to overstate how bad this is.

So just to be clear, I am not a software developer, so I'm not an expert in this. But doing some research, it sounds like the company has a lot of the blame here, to the point where I'm not even sure that it's fair to call this a hack or a leak because they were just that sloppy with user data. Like, it truly sounds like these women had photos and their driver's license photos posted to 4chan because the T-app just didn't bother to take basic security steps. 404 Media, one of my favorite tech outlets, was the first to break the story of what happened,

which is that users from 4chan claimed to have discovered an exposed and unsecured database posted on Google's mobile app development platform, Firebase, belonging to the T-app. On 4-chan, folks were bragging that this let them rifle through women's personal data and selfies that were uploaded to the app. Then, of course, they posted that data on the app. Over on 4chan, users exclaimed, yes, if you sent T-app your face and driver's license, they docks you publicly. No authentication, no nothing. It's a public bucket. Drivers' licenses

and face picks, get the fuck in here before they shut it down. Now, the thread says that the issue was this exposed database that allowed anybody to access this material. And 404 Media confirmed a voluminous list of specific attachments associated with the T-App. Eventually, that page was locked down. The 4chan post includes a photo of four women's driver's licenses that the 4chan user says they redacted, but the comment on that 4chan thread indicate that many more photos of T users have been exposed, with one person claiming that they downloaded thousands. 4-4 Media saw 4chan users share dozens of photos of women that they claim were downloaded from the database, which all shared the same image dimensions and file naming format that they saw

on the list in the exposed Google Firebase bucket. Initially, the person who discovered all this says they tried to report it to Google, but ended up reporting it to 404 media instead. So let's break this down because it's basically like if your doctor stored your private personal medical records in an open crate in the back alley behind the clinic. Or like if your bank stored all of your money in an open shoebox in the bank lobby. Obviously, it's pretty fucked up for Fortune to access this, but it is even more fucked up that the T app, this app that is getting away with billing themselves to be about women's safety

is letting this level of sensitive information just essentially be publicly accessible. I cannot overstate what a massive, massive fuck-up this is because both because of the very serious harm that has been done to these 13,000 women, and also because it happened because the developers just left this information sitting out there unsecured for anybody to just come and get it.

More after a quick break. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy. Not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman, help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

There's the worst singer in the group. The worst? Yeah. Me. Is there anything to the idea that because you're from Harvard, uh, you only got in because you're, Because your parents made a huge donation. The group.

The yard birds, right? That's the name. The Harvard Yardt. They're open. Do you have a name suggestion? We're open. Since you guys are middle-aged. One erection.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Humor me. I need some jokes to make me seem funny. Run a business and not thinking about podcasting, think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ads supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, IHearts twice as large as the next two combined. So whatever your customers listen to, they'll hear your message.

Plus, only IHeart can extend your message to audiences across broadcast radio. Think podcasting can help your business. Think IHeart, streaming, radio, and podcasting. Let us show you at iHeartadvertising.com. That's IHeartadvertising.com. What's up fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano and our podcast Point Game is about defining the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed.

And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us

everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He run up the court, licking his fingers, why he got the ball. Like, you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball.

So listen to Pointe, game on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There are times when the mind becomes a difficult place to live. This is David Eagleman with the Inner Cosmos podcast, and for Mental Health Awareness Month, we're dedicating a series to understanding the mind when it struggles. I'm joined by doctors, researchers, and those with lived experience. We'll talk with singer-songwriter Jewel about anxiety. I started living in my car, and then my car got stolen. I was shopless. I was having panic attacks.

I was agoraphobic. And making it through hardship. To be present is a learned skill. And it's hard to be present. We'll talk with John Nelson about clinical depression and the brain implant that saved his life. What I learned is that procedure made me happy because I'm disease-free.

And we'll talk with leading experts like Judd Brewer about anxiety and John Hirschfield about obsessive-compulsive disorder and the science of how the brain can change. This is a month of deeply personal and honest conversations about what happens when the brain goes off course and what we can do about it. Listen to Inner Cosmos on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Let's get right back into it. So what the ever-loving fuck happened here? We don't actually know. A lot of my cybersecurity friends that I talked to about this said that the site might have been vibe code, which is when someone who doesn't know any better or is just careless and sloppy and lazy just uses AI to help them put together a site

and they don't really know the things they should be asking for so it comes out really janky. But other friends have suggested this could also just be a careless person. There's also the idea that this kind of fuck up is unfortunately not super uncommon. Just a few weeks ago, the insurance company Alliance Life disclosed a breach through a third-party cloud vendor affecting most of its 1.4 million U.S. customers, including financial professionals and employees,

and all of their personal data was accessed. And due to a Google Analytics misconfiguration on their site, up to 4.7 million individuals had their names, insurance details, zip codes, and patient identifiers shared improperly. So as shocking as this is, this kind of breach is not terribly uncommon. There was also such big fervor around the TF breach. An interactive Google map was circulating online purporting to show where all the different women's addresses included in the breach were located. This even got to a point where a fake story emerged on social media using an AI-generated news broadcaster warning women about the so-called T-bag killer, who, the fake report said, was killing the women whose addresses were exposed in the breach. Now, this is not true.

Controversy clinging to it in the form of an AI-generated newscast this week. Police are investigating a string of murders linked to the T-Aap, where women who exposed men were later found dead. Detroit Police say there is absolutely no truth to the so-called T-bag killer. I stuffed their throats with T-bags. The Post even had a name of a DPD investigator. There's no one by that name that works for the department. But if you're not looking, these deep fakes can be tricky to spot. So thankfully, we don't have to worry about the T-Bag killer.

But we cannot not talk about the gender dynamics at play here. Because something that almost feels a little, I don't know, hinky about this entire thing is that it fits so squarely and neatly into a gender wars framework. You know, women using an app that they believe to be anonymous to share pictures of men and gossip about men, men saying, this is doxing. And then those same women getting doxed by the really sloppy privacy protocols

and their images being posted all over the internet, like it almost seems like a tamer. made kind of gender wars just so story, to the point where when I first heard about this breach, I almost wondered if it was some kind of a setup. And of course, those women's images were floating all over the internet with men making fun of them, with all kinds of sexist, misogynistic barbs. And just a few days after the breach, someone made a site that ranks the looks of the women featured in the breached images, which, hey, I thought Mark Zuckerberg already had that idea. And some of those photos have been ranked tens of thousands of times.

And I think that really demonstrates why women would flock to an app like the T app, you know, an app that is promising even falsely to help women have safer experiences with men. The fact that men on Fortuna would do this kind of thing kind of proves their point. When I went to see what people were saying about this online, I found a lot of women upset at the idea that men would be so bothered that women would have a space online to discuss the behavior of men. One Instagram comment on the T app's Instagram page reads, Wow, it's crazy how some men are genuinely upset about this app,

mainly because it disrupts their ability to move in deception and avoid taking accountability for their actions. The T.A.S. Instagram page is littered with stories purporting to show women who have used the app to find out their husbands or the fathers of their kids are running around on them. No, it's not clear to me if these are actually real stories or just more marketing from the app. And again, I don't want to discount that women should have a space to talk about their experiences in dating. and I don't want the survivors of abuse to go unheard, but I have to admit that I am personally very uncomfortable with apps like this.

Even while I understand why women might feel empowered by what these apps are selling. And of course, there's already calls and online forms to make a version of the T app for men to rate women as payback, even though men kind of already have this. Like men don't really need a dedicated app to rate women. One such app called T-Born, according to NBC News, quickly ignited backlash after its creator called out users for posting revenge porn. Wow, what a shocker. Who could have seen that coming? The T-Borne app has now been removed from the

App Store, and there are men all over men's rights Reddit communities saying that this is evidence of anti-male bias, that the T-app for women to rate men would be able to remain on the app store, but the app for men to rate women was taken down. I think what makes me the most angry about this entire thing. Honestly, isn't the 4chan goons responsible? It's the fact that this app would purport to give women a space to keep themselves safe and betray them so cruelly by putting them at risk. Like, as fucked up as 4chan is for circulating these images and this data, who expects anything other than this kind of behavior from the guys who hang out on 4chan? If anything, the fact that these kinds of threats exist for women should mean that the people who run apps like the Tapp have an

even bigger responsibility to protect those women that they have attracted to their platform with the promise of caring about their safety. Or at the very least, they ought to not be outright lying to those women about what steps they're taking to keep them safe so they can make up their own minds about whether or not they're going to trust this platform. The T-app issued an apology for the breach, but it kind of doesn't matter. They had a responsibility to protect their users and they failed hard. And fuck-ups like this are not a force of nature. They happen because somebody somewhere in the company decided that this amount of security was good enough. They could have hired additional software engineers or contracted with an outside company to do a security audit, but they didn't.

They decided to spend money on other stuff. And it's obvious that they did not invest enough in security to keep their users safe. The T-Apps security practices, or lack thereof, make me think that this app that was started by a man was never really invested in women's safety at all, because if they were, they would have had better security practices. I think that what they were actually interested in is just capitalizing on the inevitable online engagement from the promise of women telling each other juicy stories about men. Cover that with a little splashy pink influencer-style social media presence, and you've got a solid business plan to capitalize on the unpleasant experiences of women. Who cares if you put those women at risk? I mean, this is just my personal take, but I think the T app was basically quickly and sloppily thrown together with security and privacy, obviously. as an afterthought, just to generate and make use of gendered rage bait in order to garner

attention for the app. And the sad thing is, this is effective. I just checked, and the T app is currently the number two app on the entire app store. To put that in perspective, right now the number one app is chat GPT. And I guess ultimately, I simply do not trust a lot of for-profit apps that are selling and packaging safety to women, because real safety is not someone telling you on an app that a guy is a red flag. It's having safer communities, healthier relationship dynamics, avenues for meaningful accountability. It's about being able to communicate on platforms that aren't just lying to us and exploiting

us and putting us at risk. So yeah, I guess I just don't like the idea of safety being sold to us as a for-profit app. And I think it also creates a dynamic that puts the burden on keeping yourself safe on women. Like, we should be able to have safe dating experiences without relying on apps that ultimately exploit us. And honestly, what makes me really sad is that on the T-Aps' Instagram post about the breach, a lot of the comments are from women who do not seem to care about the breach. They just want to know when their verification to sign up for the app will be approved. And it makes me sad that the state of gender in dating is so bad that even on a post about the app admitting how carelessly it treated very sensitive information of their users, people are still just clamoring

to get on the app. Like, it makes me think we really are cooked. And I think the T-App is a bit of a harbender of things to come, bad things, to be clear, because we've talked a lot about the rise of age verification laws and laws that would require folks to submit their government ID to access different corners of the internet. I am very personally against laws like this for several reasons, but what happened with the T-app reach is an excellent example of one of those reasons. A lot of what keeps us secure online comes down to shared norms. Like we learn not to click those suspicious links and not to give away our two-factor authentic

codes or had a spot a scam or a spoof call. But when apps and websites start asking for more and more sensitive information like social security numbers, face scans or photo IDs, it trains us to just hand over our data without really thinking twice about it. Sharing this kind of information can start to feel as automatic as just hitting a green on a terms of service without thinking much about it. And that is no good. The more apps and services that require us to give up our personal information, there are more opportunity there is for that information to fall in the wrong hands. Cybersecurity experts sometimes call this expanding the surface area of risk. And the real problem is, is that we don't have any real way of knowing how our data will be

stored or used once we hand it over. The T-app said they were deleting verification selfies and government IDs, but we can see that they clearly did not because that information is now floating all over the internet. So a company might say, oh, yeah, we're following very strict privacy policies, but that doesn't mean they actually are. And the T-app obviously wasn't. Even companies with solid security protocols can still get hacked hacked. And when the stakes are this high, you know, when what's being collected is tied to your government name and identity and address, these risks are not theoretical. As more platforms require ID uploads and facial recognition, I think we're only going to see more problems with this. And weak security practices are not just

inconvenient, they're dangerous, not just for women, for all of us. Last year, 404 Media reported that a company that verifies the identities of TikTok, Uber, and X users, sometimes by processing photographs of their faces and pictures of their driver's licenses, ex-imposed a set of administrative credentials online for more than a year, potentially allowing hackers to access that sensitive data. And this is happening as more social networks and pornography sites move toward an identity or age verification model, in which users are required to upload their real identity documents to access certain services.

usually because laws require it in a misguided effort to protect children. The T-breach highlights that identity services are themselves a prime target for hackers, and a major threat to all of our safety. So if these are the same companies that we might all be using if age verification becomes more widespread across the country, we could all very well be at risk. So as for the T-app, in the wake of the breach, they say they have engaged third-party cybersecurity experts and are working around the clock to secure systems.

In a statement, they said, at this time, we have implemented additional security measures and have fixed a data issue. We are currently working to determine the full nature and scope of the information involved in the incident. Protecting our user's privacy and data is our highest priority. We are taking every necessary step to ensure the security of our platform and prevent further exposure. This is tail as old as the internet itself. Company rushes to build sloppy software, pushes it to users with weak security, gets burned by a data breach, and then and only then invest in resources that actually protect their users. But it shouldn't take a disaster like this one for a company to do the right thing and prioritize user safety.

And this kind of thing honestly tells you a ton about a company's values and the values of the people who work there. So not to put too far on a point on it, but I think if you currently have the T-Apps, you should delete it. I don't think that any company that lies to its users while purporting to be all about keeping themselves is a company that you can't. trust even if they do clean up their act. Women deserve so much better. Got a story about an interesting thing in tech or just want to say hi? You can reach us at hello at tangoody.com. You can also find transcripts for today's episode at tangoody.com. There are no girls on the internet was created by me, Bridget Todd. It's a production of IHeart Radio and Unbossed Creative. Jonathan Strickland is our executive producer. Tari Harrison is our producer and sound engineer.

Michael Amato is our contributing producer. I'm your host, Bridget Todd. If you want to help us grow, write and review us on Apple Podcasts. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, check out the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends.

Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform?

We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Edwin Castro, also known as Castro 1021. And I'm Kunky, his best friend and business manager. And we've got a new show called The 1021 Podcast. I'm taking you behind the scenes on how I became one of Twitch's most popular streamers. We also love sports.

And with the World Cup right around the corner, we'll be breaking down the best. biggest storylines ahead of the big tournament here in the USA. Listen to the 1021 podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Why are we all so obsessed with romance? On the radio 831 podcast, join us, Sanjana Basker and Tyler McCall as we unpack all the trending tropes, fuzzy adaptations, book talk drama, and celebrity love stories with hot takes and sharp guests.

Each episode digs into what these stories reveal about desire, fantasy, identity, and how we love now. Listen to the Radio 831 podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season,

and I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was hiring. You just understood. That's how a person. know it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Markeep coming to you,

he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.