If you use Venmo, I want you to stop and take a moment to check its privacy settings. Your payment activity in Venmo may be visible to the world! I wager that many people would not want that, so I’ll describe how to hide your Venmo history:
You’ll want to pay attention to two settings that cover your past transactions and also your future ones:
In the Venmo App
- Tap the cogwheel in the upper-right corner
- Tap Privacy
- Adjust the Default Privacy Settings, preferably to Private
- Tap Past Transactions
- Tap Change All to Private
- Tap Change to Private to confirm
On the Venmo Website
- On the left, scroll down to click Settings, then click Privacy
- On the right, under Future Payments, click Private
- Under, Past Payments, click Change to Private
Keep in mind that if you have multiple Venmo accounts (personal and business, for example), you’ll want to login to each in turn, and check the settings for both.
Now, I might imagine a scenario where you want your payments to be visible to others. Some content creators or celebrities might actually want that kind of attention. But for the majority of us, I think this is a security and privacy problem. Having your Venmo history out there could lead to undue attention, uncomfortable questions, and worse. For you and those you’ve transacted with.
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