Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
Business Insider
Don't be like JD Vance. Make your Venmo contacts private.
By Katie Notopoulos,
1 day ago
WIRED found JD Vance 's Venmo account and was able to view some of his public transactions and friends.
Until very recently, Venmo didn't allow you to hide your friend list. A privacy nightmare!
Here's how to turn off the public friend list in your privacy settings.
JD Vance, the Ohio senator who has been tapped as Donald Trump's running mate, is 39 years old — a true millennial. As a millennial, he uses Venmo , the social payments app. He also, apparently, isn't very up-to-date on the latest privacy features in the app.
Wired discovered Vance's Venmo account and saw a few of his transactions and a list of his Venmo contacts. (Being friends on Venmo doesn't necessarily mean you've transacted with the people — it just means you or they synced phone contacts at some point.)
Vance's office didn't comment on the record to Wired.
Venmo has been criticized for how it handles user privacy for years. Although it's possible to make individual transactions private, for a long time that wasn't the default. After the Federal Trade Commission got involved , Venmo had to find a way to make all your past public transactions private.
But for a long time, there was no way to make your friend list private. (There still is no such thing as making your entire account "private.") This was a serious concern for, say, a therapist who accepted Venmo as payment — their friend list potentially exposes their client list.
In a statement to Wired, Venmo said: "Venmo takes our customers' privacy very seriously, which is why we let customers choose their privacy settings — and we make it incredibly simple for customers to make their account private if they choose to do so."
But sadly, most people don't know about these privacy features! So I'm shouting about them as many times — over and over — as I possibly can!
With that in mind, here's how to make your Venmo account as private as possible:
1. Start at the "Settings" gear at the top of your Venmo profile page
2. Now, once you get to the Settings page, scroll down to "Privacy"
3. If you haven't already — set your default for transactions to Private. But keep in mind: This is only for individual transactions; it doesn't mean your account is fully private.
4. While you're on this page, also scroll down to the "Friends List" option
5. Now, change this to Private. Also, move the toggle so that you won't appear in other people's friend lists
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
Welcome to NewsBreak, an open platform where diverse perspectives converge. Most of our content comes from established publications and journalists, as well as from our extensive network of tens of thousands of creators who contribute to our platform. We empower individuals to share insightful viewpoints through short posts and comments. It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency: our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. We strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation. Join us in shaping the news narrative together.
Comments / 0