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Two data breaches, multiple class action lawsuits, and a removal from the Apple App Store later, the popular and controversial dating safety app Tea for Women is back and launching a new website version of its services today. Billed as a Yelp for men, Tea was created in 2023 but was relatively unknown until July 2025, when it quickly became a viral sensation and shot to the top of App Store downloadsat one point outranking ChatGPT on the Apple App Store. Similar to Are We Dating the Same Guy? Facebook groups, Tea offered women what they thought was a secure forum to obtain information and advice on men they had matched with on dating apps. Women using the platform wanted to ensure that romantic prospects were safe to meet in person and to root out abusers, predators, and cheaters, which Tea allowed them to do through built-in background checks, a sex offender map, and reverse image searches. Users could also vote on whether a mans behavior was desirable or shady by selecting red or green flag icons under someones post, offering the creator a sort of pulse check that they might otherwise have had to wait for until their next girls’ night out. But after landing on the publics radar, the app quickly faced backlash and sparked debates about gender divides in dating and mens right to privacy in a digital-first era. Back-to-back data breaches ensued: Hackers gained access to 72,000 images, including users government IDs and selfies, and over 1 million messages, then posted them to 4chan, an anonymous forum primarily used by men and historically a home to incel culture and hate speech. [Image: Tea] Legal fallout and App Store ban At least 10 potential class action lawsuits followed, alleging that Tea had been negligent in its data practices. At the time of the hack, Teas privacy policy asserted that users’ selfies were deleted once their profiles had been verified. Images leaked in the breach, however, dated back to 2023, contradicting the apps own privacy policy. (As of August 11, 2025, Teas privacy policy has been updated to state that it retains user data for as long as [a users] account is active as needed to provide [a user] the Services, or where we have an ongoing legitimate business need.”) In October, the app was removed from Apples App Store for failing to meet standards around privacy, content moderation, and user experience. On the Google Play Store, where Tea is still available for download, a notable number of negative reviews complain of glitchiness, trouble staying logged in, and a lack of free features. Some reviewers also reported that they were denied the ability to use the app after submitting a selfie to prove their gender identityTea is a women-only platformalleging that they were rejected for not appearing feminine enough. New Tea aims to right past wrongs The launch of Tea 2.0, the new website version of the app, aims to remedy these safety issues and expand access to the platform, according to Jessica Dees, the platform’s head of trust and safety. Launching our web experience is a strategic move toward platform resilience, allowing us to establish a scalable hub that isnt dependent on a single distribution channel,” Dees wrote in an email to Fast Company. She added that Tea has brought on experts in the trust and safety field to address community safety specifically. “This transition provides us with technical flexibility as we implement more robust moderation workflows, Dees wrote. This isnt a choice between a new site and better moderation. It’s about building a long-lasting experience that gives women access to safety, wherever they are. [Image: Tea] How will the new Tea be different? The website will offer users the ability to crowdsource information on a potential date like it did before. The extra safety features, which cost $14.99 a month, will continue to be available on the mobile version of Tea (still only available to Android users) and will be incorporated into the website in the future, Dees says. Additionally, Android users can access new features including a virtual speakeasy where users can vote on polls, engage with topic-specific forums, and post anonymous audio messages, as well as an AI-powered dating coach that can analyze and suggest responses to messages with dating app matches. Dees wrote that Tea is taking concerns about privacy seriously, both from women who may have been impacted by the past data breaches or fear being part of one in the future, as well as men who have voiced anger and concern over posts about them that were not independently verified and may have included false or even defamatoryassertions. Tea helps women review patterns and potential red flags rather than relying on isolated claims, Dees wrote. By enabling women to exchange real-world insight in a moderated environment, [Tea] helps create earlier awareness, reduce risk, and support safer decision-making, which can be life-saving in a dating landscape where many forms of harm escalate precisely because warning signs are missed or shared too late. Tea now offers non-users a method to request content removal through its website. [Image: Tea] The platform is also partnering with a third-party identity verification service to eliminate any friction for women who had issues gaining access to Tea by submitting a selfie, which was previously required during the account creation process. Dees did not provide specific examples of what information users will be required to submit. Users are given a range of options regarding the information they provide when creating an account, and the information they choose to provide is evaluated using a variety of techniques before they are granted access to the platform, Dees wrote. Fans want more Tea The announcement of Teas return has been met with excitement. Although Dees declined to share the size of the websites VIP waitlist, it has a massive existing fanbase to rely oneven after the breaches. The app surpassed six million downloads before it was removed from the App Store, and according to Dees, an in-app poll that garnered 34,000 responses found that 73% of users felt Tea had made dating a safer experience for them. Thank God, one commenter wrote of the platforms return. [T]his app saves lives when the legal system fails to protect us!!
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E-Commerce
For most people, leaving Apple after two decades would mean stepping away from sleek design and obsessive detail. For Xander Soren, it simply meant translating those principles into a different medium and bottling them. During his 20-plus years at Apple, Soren helped shape some of the companys most culture-defining products and creative tools. He was the original product manager for iTunes, worked on the launch of the iPod, led the development of GarageBand, and oversaw features like iPhone ringtones that became ubiquitous parts of Apples ecosystem. His career spanned Apples rebirth into a design-led powerhouse, a period in which he absorbed the philosophy of simplicity, emotional resonance, and uncompromising craft that defined the companys second act. Soren is now the mind behind a radical wine venture years in the making, developing a high-end Pinot Noir crafted specifically to pair with Japanese cuisine. After decades spent building products at Silicon Valley speed, he chose to pursue a more contemplative set of passions such as wine, Japanese culture, and Japanese food, while building a business that is deliberately small, design forward, and personal. He produces just 600 to 800 cases per vintage, sometimes fewer than 100 cases of a single wine. It is a boutique operation with a big vision, rooted not in scale but in intention. A Lifelong Connection to Apple and Japan Ask Soren where this all began and he traces it back to two childhood obsessions, the Mac and Japan. My Apple journey probably started as a kid. I had the original Mac in 1984 that I was totally obsessed with. I was an Apple fan boy as a kid, and I followed the company . . . and I really was drawn to a lot of things with Japanese culture. When he eventually joined Apple, that thread only deepened. When I came to Apple, Steve [Jobs] had just been back as CEO for a little over three years . . . the first job I had was the iTunes product manager, the original iTunes product manager. So talk about throwing into the deep end . . . My first project that I worked on was the original iPod launch, which wound up changing the company. At Apple, Soren was steeped in design-first thinking. Now, it is inseparable from his winemaking. [Photo: Conan Morimoto/courtesy Xander Soren Wines] A Pinot Noir Built for the Japanese Table Sorens wines are crafted from conception to blending to shine with Japanese cuisine. He focuses on cooler appellations, especially the Santa Rita Hills, where unique terroir produces fruit capable of Burgundy-level nuance. He sources from historic sites including La Encantada, Sanford & Benedict, Sierra Mar, and Olivet Lane, as well as Yuki Vineyard on the Sonoma Coast, owned by Japanese producer Akiko Freeman. Why Pinot? I think I agree with a lot of the sommelier and chef community, where people feel the Pinot Noir is one of the most versatile food pairing wines,” Soren says. Santa Rita Hills fruit, in particular, clicked. They always say it has a saline sea spray, Nori, umami . . . flavors, he says, flavors tailor-made for sukiyaki, wagyu, tempura, or even raw tuna. You can drink Pinot Noir with raw tuna. The wines are deliberately high acid, bright, lower in alcohol, and built with balance in mind, attributes essential for delicate, complex dishes. Minimal Intervention, Maximum Precision Sorens winemaker is Shalini Sekhar, a rising star who has earned 2015’s Winemaker of the Year (San Francisco International Wine Competition) and the San Francisco Chronicles 2019 Winemaker to Watch. Her résumé spans Williams Selyem, Stags Leap, her own Ottavino label, and a portfolio of boutique producers. At Xander Soren Wines, Sekhar leads a nonintrusive, labor-intensive approach. Not only vineyard blocks but individual clones are fermented and aged separately in carefully selected French oak before final blending. Production is small because the process demands it. Soren describes their partnership this way: I consider myself more of a creative director and then Shalini is this masterful, award-winning winemaker.” Blending is their meeting point. We both of us sit down, we try a whole bunch of different blends. It’s always done blind. [We ask] what do you think, A versus B? Design as Experience: Boxes, Logos, and the Apple Touch Soren’s Apple design background is unmistakable the moment you unbox a bottle of Xander Soren wine. The packaging is deliberately minimalist, tactile, and engineered to create a moment of anticipation, much like peeling back the lid of a new Mac or iPhone. It started with wanting the unboxing experience to be something very special . . . made out of this beautiful but simple cardboard, which I felt like was more eco-friendly, Soren says. [Photo: courtesy Xander Soren Wines] The idea for the packaging crystallized when he encountered a sake package he found almost impossibly elegant, with clean lines, restrained materials, and boxes that opened with gentle friction to reveal their contents with quiet ceremony. It felt Japanese in its simplicity, but also familiar in a way he could not place. When he tracked down the designers, he got his answer. They told me, very coincidentally, that the sake box that I fell in love with was inspired by the original iPhone packaging. So it kind of felt like this full circle thing. For Soren, the connection was not just aesthetic. Both Apple and traditional Japanese design value containers that elevate the object inside rather than distract from it. His wine pakaging follows the same logic, using understated materials, intentional geometry, and nothing extraneous. The experience begins before the cork is pulled. And that attention to micro-details is central to his brand. Small, little, tiny things are important,” he says. The box, like the wine, is not meant to shout. It is designed to reveal itself slowly through weight, texture, proportion, and subtle precision that reflects both Sorens Apple lineage and his reverence for Japanese craft. After decades building software at breathtaking velocity, Soren had to adjust to a new rhythm when it came to wine. When shifting something like the vineyard a wine is made from or adjusting the blend, We won’t really know the impact of that decision for four or five years, he explains. A bit slower than an iPod launch. That patience guides his small scale. The brand currently makes around 800 cases of wine each year. A Logo of Symbolism and Storytelling Sorens logo blends Japanese symbolism with deeply personal references. Inspired by the traditional Kamon crests used by Samurai families, the mark embraces simplicity and iconic geometry. [Image: courtesy Xander Soren Wines] At its center sits an X-shaped Phacelia wildflower, chosen for its four petals that echo his own name, while the circular form subtly nods to elements of music, evoking the look of a speaker, a reel-to-reel tape, or even vintage vinyl inserts. His father, industrial designer Leon Soren, contributed a final touch by breaking the top edge of the outer ring to mimic the silhouette of a Japanese temple roof. The result is a layered emblem meant to unfold slowly, rewarding close study and reflecting the Japanese appreciation for small, intentional details that reveal themselves over time. Silicon Valleys Quiet Migration Into Wine Soren is not the first tech veteran to trade circuits for cellars. Silicon Valley has a long, often understated history of executives who eventually find their way into vineyards. One of the earliest and most influential examples is Oracle cofounder Bob Miner, whose family transformed rugged hillside land in Napa into Oakville Ranch, now considered one of the valleys most respected mountain estates. Miners approach was a precursor to todays tech-to-wine ethos, centered on small-lot production, meticulous farming, and a belief that great wine begins with great design in the vineyard. Former Intel executive Dave House followed a similar path with House Family Vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where he built a boutique operation focused on Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Cabernet Sauvignon. His shift from high-performance computing to high-elevation viticulture mirrors a familiar pattern among tech leaders seeking a more tactile, craft-driven second act. Even the tech worlds biggest names have dipped into wine. Tesla’s Elon Musk previously owned Ellison Vineyards in Napa, although he never developed it into a consumer-facing label. Jeff Bezos of Amazon owns a sprawling estate in Napas Atlas Peak AVA, an ultra-premium site whose wines are not released under a public brand. Both illustrate the tech sectors fascination with wine, which often becomes an alternate industry where engineering instincts meet agricultural patience. Soren admits that he still thinks like a product designer, even if the products now grow on vines. In tech, momentum is everything. In wine, momentum is measured in rains, ripeness, and the passing of seasons. Soren seems content with that reversal. Its not the speed that matters anymore, but the satisfaction of work that unfolds on its own clock.
Category:
E-Commerce
Yesterday, customers of Verizon Communications across the country picked up their phones only to discover that they had no service. Calls, texts, and the internet simply didnt work. Verizon now says the underlying issue has been resolved. But just what caused it, and will Verizon compensate customers for the outage? Heres what you need to know. What happened? On Wednesday, a little after noon ET, customers around the country began taking to social media to report that they had lost Verizon service on their phones. Calls and texts could not be made or received, and internet access was nonexistent. Many iPhone owners on Verizons network saw the SOS icon in their menu bar, meaning no network was available, and any communication was limited to satellite connectivity. Over the course of a few hours, Verizon posted several social media messages saying it was aware of the issue and had teams working on the ground to fix it. But it wasnt until around 10 p.m. ET that Verizon said the issue had been fixed. The outage has been resolved, Verizon said in a post on X. If customers are still having an issue, we encourage them to restart their devices to reconnect to the network. What caused the outage? Right now, Verizon hasnt disclosed what exactly caused its network to go down for so many hours. Fast Company has reached out to the company for comment. What is known is that many Verizon users on social media who have multiple phones on Verizons network reported that not all of their phones lost service yesterday. Many customers have reported that only their phones with Verizon eSIMs lost service, while their phones with physical Verizon SIMs remained active. However, there is so far no evidence that the disruption was directly linked to eSIMs or that only eSIM users were affected. The massive outage also comes just a few months after Verizon conducted the largest layoffs in its history. In November, the company announced it would begin laying off 13,000 workers. In a memo to staff at the time, Verizon CEO Dan Schulman said the layoffs were needed to address the complexity and friction that slow us down and frustrate our customers. It is unknown whether the workforce reductions had any impact on Verizons outage or the companys ability to resolve it in a timely manner. Will customers be compensated? Verizons outage lasted about 10 hours, severely straining peoples ability to work and communicate for a significant period, leading to understandable outrage from its customers. In a post on X, Verizon said that account credits will be provided to those customers affected and that customers will be contacted directly. However, it has not provided more details about the compensation, including how much the credits will be worth and whether they will be automatic or if customers will need to apply for them. We’ve asked the company for additional details and will update this story if we hear back. Free donuts and snarky competitors To every problem, there is usually some kind of silver lining. Or, in this case, sugary lining. As the Verizon outage quickly became the thing that everyone on social media was talking about yesterday, donut giant Krispy Kreme decided to get in on the action by announcing it was giving away free donuts due to the outage. SOS got you down?” the company posted on its Instagram account. We can hear you now the post went on, in a reference to Verizons famous Can you hear me now? slogan. The donut chain then announced customers could come by between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. yesterday for a free original glazed donut, because some days need a sweet backup plan you can rely on. And it wasnt just Krispy Kreme getting in on the Verizon outage action. Verizons competitors, AT&T and T-Mobile, decided to jump in on the free-donut action and leave their own snarky comments on Krispy Kremes post. T-Mobile members out here texting everybody they know,” the official T-Mobile account commented in response to the free donut offer. As for AT&T, the companys official IG account commented, Def not us this time, we’ll sit this one out and enjoy the donuts, alluding to its own nationwide outage, which occurred in February 2024. How has Verizon’s stock reacted to the outage? The incident has not seemed to impact the company’s stock price (NYSE: VZ). Shares rose more than 2% yesterday and were roughly flat on Thursday in premarket trading.
Category:
E-Commerce
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