Friday Tech Tip: Lock Down Your Venmo Privacy
You probably don’t see Venmo as a social network, but the Paypal-owned company does. In 2018, the company told CNET “it’s fun to share [information] with friends in the social world.”
When you send your rent or pay someone back for a coffee, that information might be visible to the world. There’s a lot of Venmo users out there, so information in the app’s public feed might only be visible momentarily. But when you have friends in the app and neither of your settings are locked down, all of your friend’s friends can see your activity.
Do they need to know where you were, or what you paid for? Probably not. And if you’re using “funny” language like “drugs” or “sex” (even if they’re meant as a joke), having that information available could be seen as incriminating. Always think about how a prosecutor and jury will look at your in-jokes or funny comments! A stalker or abuser might try to use your Venmo profile against you, too. The less information you’re giving out, the better.
You can’t control your friends’ privacy settings on Venmo, but you can change your own. It’s easy.
1. Click the menu icon, the three bars at the top right.
2. Tap Settings at the bottom of the menu.
3. Tap Privacy.
4. Tap Private. Venmo will ask you to confirm.
Your future transactions will only be visible to you and the other person involved.
5. Finally, tap Privacy for Past Transactions and then Change All to Private.
All your past transactions are now private: visible only to you and the other person involved.
That’s it. 5 simple steps to keeping your Venmo profile locked down.
Of course, this doesn’t keep Venmo or PayPal from seeing your transactions, but you’ve protected yourself from snooping people who have no need to see what you’re sending or receiving.