Change Venmo Settings to Private Now
If you are using Venmo and have not changed the default privacy settings, you can rethink this because almost anyone can easily figure out what you are doing and track your transactions if you haven’t.
A new report by activist designer Hang Do Thi Duc, aptly titled Public By Default , shows how easy it is for any user to view public transactions in the app. Duc was able to download data on all 207,984,218 public transactions in 2017 by “just clicking on the public link, ” as Fast Company says you don’t need permission to access the Venmo API .
After she downloaded and analyzed the available data, Duke compiled five examples of real Venmo users (their identities are not disclosed in the report) to detail what information is available to anyone curious enough.
In one example of Dooka, the user is clearly a “cannabis seller” whose customers pay him through Venmo for “CBD”, various tree smileys and “headband, exotic marijuana” ( City Dictionary ), “according to Dooka’s report. Moreover, based on publicly available data, she was able to conclude that the user is a man and runs his own marijuana growing business in Santa Barbara, California. How did she do it? “[Some] of his clients have a Facebook URL as their profile picture that includes their Facbeook ID, so it was easy for me to see where some of them live, and therefore the protagonist of this story.” (Our cannabis seller has since changed his settings.)
“Users usually say, ‘I expect this service to prioritize my privacy,” Duke told Fast Company. “But with Venmo, you will be disappointed. They just don’t care. “
It’s creepy, although this isn’t the first time users have been warned to keep their settings private . However, this is a good breakdown of exactly what information about account holders is publicly available.
Venmo told Fast Company that the company takes security seriously, but “did not comment on why Venmo’s channel is public by default.”
Moral of the story? Change your transactions to private as soon as possible (it’s easy to do in the settings). You can also make past transactions private. Alternatively, use another peer-to-peer payment system like Quick Pay or Zelle that doesn’t broadcast your actions.
Public by default | Hang Do Thi Duc