Microprocessing
How to Venmo Without Being a Monster
For God’s sake, change your privacy settings — and other helpful tips
Years ago, Jen, a food industry professional based in New York who asked to remain anonymous for reasons that are about to become obvious, realized — thanks in part to Venmo — that her relationship had hit a rough patch. She happened to see her then-boyfriend’s transactions through the app’s newsfeed, where his payments to sex workers were visible to all.
“Yes, we were still together at the time and no, we did not have an open relationship,” she says. “I was like, ‘What is this $500 💦🍆 payment to someone named, like, Brigitte Danger — made up name, but it was some shit like that. I Googled her and found her Instagram and was like, okay, this is a sex worker, good for her I guess, but this is a hell of a way to find out.”
While it’s a dramatic example, Jen’s experience is a good reminder that being a moron on Venmo can have real consequences. While there’s little you can do to prevent your significant other from broadcasting their bad conduct on a payments platform for all to see, with a little care, attention, and proper etiquette, we can improve our own Venmo behavior and thus improve the lives of the people we spend our time with — and money on.
For God’s sake, make your Venmo private
Public Venmo feeds are good for two things: outing yourself and phishing scams.
A small 2017 study found that most Venmo users think the app’s social feed is “strange” or “out of place,” and that the Facebook integration that automatically adds your Facebook friends to your Venmo contacts was intrusive.
As fascinating as it is that my former hairstylist from a city I no longer live in just Venmoed her boyfriend for “grocery stuff,” there’s really no reason not to make your Venmo private — so just do it! It’s easy: simply go to “Settings,” click “Privacy,” and then change your default posting settings to Private. You can also retroactively privatize your Venmo posts by clicking on “Past Payments” and then “Change all to private.” The only people who care what you’re doing with your money don’t have your best interests at heart, anyway.
