We Found Joe Biden’s Secret Venmo. Here’s Why That’s A Privacy Nightmare For Everyone.

[mountaineer]

We Found Joe Biden’s Secret Venmo. Here’s Why That’s A Privacy Nightmare For Everyone.
The peer-to-peer payments app leaves everyone from ordinary people to the most powerful person in the world exposed.
Ryan Mac, BuzzFeed News Reporter; Katie Notopoulos, BuzzFeed News Reporter; Ryan Brooks, BuzzFeed News Reporter; Logan McDonald, BuzzFeed Staff
Posted on May 14, 2021, at 3:25 p.m. ET

BuzzFeed News found President Joe Biden’s Venmo account after less than 10 minutes of looking for it, revealing a network of his private social connections, a national security issue for the United States, and a major privacy concern for everyone who uses the popular peer-to-peer payments app.

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.

The president’s transactions are not public, and BuzzFeed News is not identifying the usernames for the accounts mentioned in this story due to national security concerns.

After BuzzFeed News reached out to the White House for this story, all the friends on the president’s Venmo account were removed. A White House spokesperson did not have an immediate comment. ...

Privacy advocates and journalists have warned about Venmo’s privacy problems for years, yet the PayPal-owned app has persisted with features that can place people — including the president of the United States — at risk.

While many critics have focused on how the app makes all transactions public by default, Venmo’s friend lists are arguably a larger privacy issue. Even if a Venmo account is set to make payments private, its friend list remains exposed. There is no setting to make this information private, which means it can provide a window into someone’s personal life that could be exploited by anyone — including trolls, stalkers, police, and spies. ...

Full story at BuzzFeed

[Kamaji]

Geez.  And the Secret Service didn't think to check on this before the dementia patient assumed the office?  What else is out there?  What p2p account are the Chinese using to pay the Biden crime family?

[mountaineer]

Buzzfeed found all this info in 10 minutes. Who doesn't believe the Chinese and Russians, et al., don't already have this and 100x more?

[skeeter]

“Winnie the Pooh paid The Big Guy $blank”

[Cyber Liberty]

I'm on the horns of a dilemma.  On the one hand, I'm glad to see the Biteme crime family exposed, but on the other hand I'm not happy that Venmo (which I've barely heard of) is that vulnerable.

[Cyber Liberty]

Geez.  And the Secret Service didn't think to check on this before the dementia patient assumed the office?  What else is out there?  What p2p account are the Chinese using to pay the Biden crime family?

Yes, that is the question being begged. 

[BassWrangler]

I'm on the horns of a dilemma.  On the one hand, I'm glad to see the Biteme crime family exposed, but on the other hand I'm not happy that Venmo (which I've barely heard of) is that vulnerable.

I have a Venmo account, so I went to look into what they are talking about. So when you make payments, your transactions are assigned a default visibility. You can set the default visibility or change the visibility per transaction. The default is "friends only". Why is this an issue? Seems like dumbass Biden set it to Public. I don't see why it's Venmo's fault that Biden is a dumbass.

[Cyber Liberty]

I have a Venmo account, so I went to look into what they are talking about. So when you make payments, your transactions are assigned a default visibility. You can set the default visibility or change the visibility per transaction. The default is "friends only". Why is this an issue? Seems like dumbass Biden set it to Public. I don't see why it's Venmo's fault that Biden is a dumbass.

Apparently the entire network of friends are dumbasses.

[BassWrangler]

Apparently the entire network of friends are dumbasses.

Well, are you surprised? They're Democrats, after all.

[Fishrrman]

I'd never heard of "Venmo" until this story broke.

What is it, and what does it do...?

[Cyber Liberty]

Well, are you surprised? They're Democrats, after all.

[Cyber Liberty]

I'd never heard of "Venmo" until this story broke.

What is it, and what does it do...?

It's like PayPal. 

[jmyrlefuller]

I'm on the horns of a dilemma.  On the one hand, I'm glad to see the Biteme crime family exposed, but on the other hand I'm not happy that Venmo (which I've barely heard of) is that vulnerable.

It's very popular among Gen Z, maybe into the younger millennial generation. Not that they have a whole lot of spare cash to transfer...

...but it's amusing how duplicitous Buzzfeed is here. They claimed to have found Matt Gaetz's Venmo and it was a "HA! GOT EEM!" moment. Now that the President's Venmo has been hacked, all of a sudden it's a serious privacy breach.

[Wingnut]

Well, are you surprised? They're Democrats, after all.

Top Notch!

[BassWrangler]

It's like PayPal.

Exactly. It's even owned by Paypal. I'm not sure what value it provides over Paypal. I sold a pistol to a coworker, and he suggested Venmo for payment, and that's the only reason I have an account.