
Venmo: how the payment app exposes our private lives - tech_timc
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/17/venmo-payments-app-default-privacy-settings-public-information
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vxNsr
I set my default privacy policy to private, problem solved.

In fact I just checked and venmo allows you to in one click set all your past
transactions to private.

Either way, people ignoring the fact that their seemingly intimate
conversations are public is true across social networks.

~~~
reaperducer
_I set my default privacy policy to private, problem solved._

If you have to set it, then it's not the default. That's the point of the
article: That Venmo exposes personal information by default.

~~~
vxNsr
As jake said, I changing the default setting for future transactions, yes it's
set to public when you create your account, but if you're not willing to read
anything, at all, when using a service I'm not sure there's any way to protect
you anyways. In the app it's pretty clear what's gonna be private and public
when you're setting up the transaction and if you can't be bothered to pay
attention then idk what to tell you.

Also as others have pointed out, it seems most people enjoy the social aspect
of venmo, in fact they'll usually post things in a way that seems to be for a
more public audience, I'd argue that venmo would be doing a disservice to its
users if it forced them to change their privacy policy from private to public
when most people seem to want it to be public.

------
Simulacra
FYI covered extensively previously here, i.e.:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14833269](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14833269)

~~~
gcb0
that feels like the single worst comment thread on HN

starts woth 200 comments of pundits going back and forth between "everyone I
know" and "nobody" uses this app

then clueless ppl trying to defend that this app is the only way poor colege
students can properly pay a bar bill with friends if they were not drinking,
as the only alternative in their universe is spliting the bill equally, as if
money or credit card had minds of their own or something.

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neom
I find venmo part social network part p2p payment platform. My friends and I
have good fun commenting/joking on each others transactions.

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echelon
There are lots of other apps in this space. I'm surprised anyone would use the
one that airs their dirty laundry in public.

When I am asked to use Venmo, I get to see how much my friends pay in rent,
who they're dating, etc. It's super creepy.

~~~
esoterica
No you can't, Venmo doesn't show you the dollar amounts of other people's
payments.

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djsumdog
My roommate and one of my friends on the other side of the country keep
telling me to use Venmo. One refuses to get a PayPal account. I hate the
concept of Venmo, because every other country in the world has direct bank-to-
bank transfers and we don't in America:

[https://penguindreams.org/blog/the-american-banking-
system-i...](https://penguindreams.org/blog/the-american-banking-system-is-
still-in-the-1990s/)

I've heard 5/3 Bank lets you put in someone's ABA/Account number and do direct
person-to-person ACH. There's Zelle, but it's a private implementation by
individual banks, not a federally mandated and regulated system.

I wish we'd get mandated person-to-person digital transfers. Right now, I have
to print out a check with my ABA/Account number and payment details, hand it
to my roommate/landlord and he has to scan it with his phone in order to pay
rent.

~~~
dragonwriter
It would be better to have a mandated decent system, but there are lots of
decent-in-application systems that don't either make transactions public by
default or require the recipient to provide their banking info in advance to
the sender.

