Call me a grouch, but I find it really hard to make any compelling argument for why anyone needs to see a feed of their friends’ activity on Venmo.
Loading audio narration…
Is it really so interesting seeing that your friend paid someone for pizza?
Venmo’s new redesign adds features that lean into that supposed social element. Transactions in your payments feed get larger images and even animated GIFs.
I really wish Venmo would focus more on what users deserve — privacy by default! — instead of more emojis.
The newest update finally does something Venmo should have done at least a decade ago: It makes the default setting for transactions “visible to friends only” instead of “public” for new users when they sign up for the app.
Keep in mind that it isn’t even really private — the default isn’t set to “only me.”
When I put my concerns to Venmo, the company said the new settings give people more choice.
“Venmo customers have full control over what they share and who can see their activity, and the new app experience enhances how customers can manage their privacy settings,” Erin Mackey, a spokesperson for Venmo, told Business Insider. “New users will also default to ‘friends only,’ reflecting what we heard from customers. Whether they prefer to share publicly, with friends, or keep their activity private, privacy settings are easy to find and update at any time.”
When Venmo first launched, having a social element seemed like a fun gimmick, a playful and cute relic of the early 2010s when adding a social layer to everything was a big trend. But in 2026, I have no idea why any reasonable person would want anyone — even friends — to view their financial transactions.
All your contacts are still public by default when you sign up
That’s not even my biggest gripe. Venmo isn’t making a change for its new users that I think it absolutely should: making friends lists private by default.
Keep in mind there’s no such thing as a “private” Venmo account — people can generally find your account if they have your name or phone number. (Although new users won’t have transactions public to strangers by default anymore.) But there’s another way that people can find you: by searching other people’s friend lists.
That’s how, in 2021, my colleague found Joe Biden’s personal Venmo account — combing through the contact lists of other White House affiliates and family. In 2024, Wired found Vice President JD Vance’s Venmo account, which included all his public contacts.
At the time, there was no way to make your contacts private — or to opt out of appearing in other people’s contact lists. This was a huge privacy loophole — even if you kept your transactions private, people could find all sorts of information about you by seeing who your friends were.
There are tons of examples of people who have been affected by this: people who were being stalked by an abusive ex, therapists, or sex workers whose client lists were made essentially public, etc.
Thankfully, after the Joe Biden incident, Venmo made a change and now allows people to make their contact lists private — but it’s buried waaaaaaay deep in your user settings (here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it).
But it’s still not the default for new users, and most existing users probably don’t know you can hide contacts. (Did you? I really, really recommend you do it now!)
