A fast-growing app for women was hacked after it shot to the top of app download charts and kicked off heated debates about women’s safety and dating.

The app, Tea Dating Advice, allowed women worried about their safety to share information about men they might date. Its premise was immediately polarizing: Some praised it as a useful way to warn women about dangerous men, while others called it divisive and a violation of men’s privacy.

On Friday, Tea said that hackers had breached a data storage system, exposing about 72,000 images, including selfies and photo identifications of its users.

Here’s what to know about the situation.

What is the Tea app?

Released in 2023, the U.S.-based app says it is a resource for women to protect themselves while dating, with some online likening it to a Yelp service for women dating men in the same area.

Women who sign up and are approved can join an anonymous forum to seek feedback on men they are interested in, or report bad behavior from men they have dated.

Other tools on the app allow users to run background checks, search for criminal records and reverse image search for photos in the hope of spotting “catfishing,” where people pass off photos of others as themselves.