Venmo Archives

How Venmo Works

This person-to-person app allows you to easily send or receive money from friends, family, or co-workers. Simply click on the “Pay or Request” button, type in your friend’s email, phone number, or username. You can also scan a QR code from the app if your friend is nearby. Venmo is also free when you link your bank account to the app.

It recently drew a lot of attention when someone noticed several members of the Biden family on the app. It brought attention to the security of the app to everyone.

eMarketer.com published a recent article outlining the changes. “PayPal-owned Venmo will introduce new fees and updates to its platform that’ll give users more control over their accounts and add an extra layer of protection for some transactions, per Android Police.”

Privacy Changes for Users

“Privacy and security updates: Users can now change the visibility of their friends list to public, private, or friends. They can also opt out of being seen on other users’ friends lists. And effective July 20, Venmo will expand eligibility for the Purchase Protection Program for transactions sent to business accounts and all payments marked for goods and services by the sender.”

eMarketer.com

It gives the user back the power in terms of who they want to view their information. Some people may view the app as secure since it is a go between your bank account and your venmo account.

Venmo & Social Media

The Washington Post recently published an article about how one user used Venmo to collect money from strangers. Think of a “Go Fund Me” Venmo style. Here are some unique stories of how people use Venmo for crowdfunding:

When Kori Roy was heading out on the final leg of a road trip to celebrate her wife’s 29th birthday in April, she decided to add a message to the rear window of her Hyundai: “Help us get to New Orleans!” she wrote, adding her Venmo and Cash App accounts.

TikTok and Venmo have been a match made in heaven. Many TikTok users were using Venmo as a source to fuel their road trips. People have been using the app to ask for money for all kinds of things. The image below is an example.

Anytime money is being exchanged, one needs to be cautious. It seems for now anyway, there is a level of trust people have with Venmo. Maybe because it is a PayPal app and PayPal seems more secure to most people.

However, there are scams to be aware of. Unlike credit or debit cards, once money has left your account it is gone for good. it is almost impossible to recoup the loss should you send money to a scammer.

You just enjoyed a nice dinner out with a few friends and are ready to pay. You reach in and notice you forgot your credit card. Your friend pays for dinner, but instead of waiting to pay him back you easily whip out your phone, head to your Venmo app, and send your friend money with ease.

What is Venmo?

Venmo is an app that is owned by PayPal with over 52 million users, as of 2020. This person-to-person app allows you to easily send or receive money from friends, family, or co-workers. Simply click on the “Pay or Request” button, type in your friend’s email, phone number, or username. You can also scan a QR code from the app if your friend is nearby. Venmo is also free when you link your bank account to the app. What is not to love? This app has some incredible advantages and unfortunately a few disadvantages…

Privacy Entanglements

Venmo requires you to write out or choose an emoji to describe your payment before you can submit it. While this is a clever way to keep track of your payments, there are significant privacy concerns involved.

The Payment app reveals a massive number of private details about a user’s life by default.
Transactions you make are viewable on a public feed unless you change the settings to make them visible to just the party involved or only to your friends.
The amount of money sent or received is never public, but there is a text, emoji, and time stamp visible on all transactions.
Publicly viewed transactions are shared with third parties. Venmo’s privacy policy states that is shares user data “for everyday business purposes, for marketing purposes, for joint marketing with other companies.”

Not only is privacy an issue when it comes to third party sharing but what about all the “other” individuals out there, including your friends, that can see who you are paying and what you are doing?

The Dark Side of Venmo

From stalking, identifying cheaters, even buying or selling of drugs, it has all been seen and reported on over the years. One of the most alarming stories that has hit mainstream media recently is one of a national security risk. Buzzfeed News identified Joe Biden’s Venmo account, and sadly enough it was public. Once they identified that the account was truly our President’s, they quickly notified The White House.

“On Friday, following a passing mention in the New York Times that the President had sent his grandchildren money on Venmo, BuzzFeed News searched for the president’s account using only a combination of the app’s built-in search tool and public friends feature.

In the process, BuzzFeed News found nearly a dozen Biden family members and mapped out a social web that encompasses not only the first family, but a wide network of people around them, including the president’s children, grandchildren, senior White House officials, and all of their contacts on Venmo.” -Buzzfeed News

After this story was published, a Venmo spokesperson told BuzzFeed News: “The safety and privacy of all Venmo users and their information is always a top priority, and we take this responsibility very seriously. Customers always have the ability to make their transactions private and determine their own privacy settings in the app. We’re consistently evolving and strengthening the privacy measures for all Venmo users to continue to provide a safe, secure place to send and spend money.”

From celebrities being stalked through Venmo, and now our President’s private information being so very public by default, will the lines of privacy forever be tangled with Venmo? Time will tell.