Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/07/17/privacy-by-design-vs-venmo.html
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Because Venmo defaults to making all payments public
Wait, what?
At least now I know never to entrust any financial transaction to this service.
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Venmo is typically associated with shady transactions, i’ve never encountered anyone using it for legitimate reasons but if i did i’d rather pay by other means.
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@doctorow how about a brief sentence on what Venmo actually is? You know, for the rest of us. Don’t worry i’ll just google it…
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That makes its public-by-default setting even more bizarre. You’d think some of the drug dealers and pimps would have realised and submitted a feature change request.
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All the cool kids already know, dweeb.
This does not include me.
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It’s also used for scams quite often, based on the times i’ve seen it pop up in the past.
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I signed up some time ago to accept payment as a freelance make-up artist and hair stylist. I’ve used it to pay for massages, music lessons, and group purchases related to schools, weddings, and clubs.
It’s really easy to change the transaction settings to private. I did this the first day after seeing the feed of “friends’” transactions.
I’ve also never had any security issues or scam solicitations.
edit- missing word
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It’s just insane that any financial app would make the default public. I’m sure it was a social-media addled designer or founder who thought that would be a great idea but anyone who takes financial transactions seriously would see it as a fundamental flaw.
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I mean, I can’t think of a single reason the end user would want this. Humble-bragging charity payments?
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The ridiculous social media crap is my biggest complaint for sure. But as I said, it’s terribly easy to opt out. It also beats paying Square.
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I’m surprised they’re not dead set on wickr and cash payments.
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My partner and I run a mom-and-pop rental business, and we frequently are paid rent via Venmo. Lots of (especially younger) people use it for all kinds of things, many of them not shady at all.
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I read (I think here) that Venmo was an electronic money transfer system created for transactions between folks who already knew each other. I think the issue then was that it didn’t allow for refunds or follow up complaints of non-delivery, because it wasn’t meant for business use.
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I was like, “Venmo… that sounds vaguely familiar. Some fly-by-night crypto currency-related thing, maybe?” But hell, it’s part of m’f’ing Paypal…
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Except worse
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Worst of all worlds…
really? If you see your social connections spending money on a thing, and you’re the type to notice, what are you likely to do with your own money? Spend it. On the thing.
Maybe these are just people with a totally different -way- of seeing using and understanding money from you?
This is very different from my saying it’s IMO a good idea, but really, I have my own business to run, and mind, too.
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It’s a lot easier to know everyone paid in their share of a bill, tho.
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I use it all the time with co-workers for splitting lunch.
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