Venmo did not immediately respond to Wired's comment. In a statement raised to answer questions about Waltz and Wiles accounts, Erin Mackey spokesman said, we attach great importance to the privacy of our customers, which is why we let customers choose to install their privacy on Venmo for both personal payments and their friends list.
From my point of view, as a veteran, everyone has the right to use the applications and services they feel necessary to live their lives, Tara Lemieux, a 35 -year -old veteran of the US intelligence community, including the National Security Agency, the Inland Security Department and the support agencies. That said, when you post anything in that third -party applications and you do not understand how that information can be shared or exploited, you are at risk for our country and that is unacceptable.
For Lemieux, while public transactions on Venmo may be harmless, foreign intelligence services, especially signaling intelligence agencies, searching for samples: Who paid for, frequency and when. Say they are paying for their children, now you have a leverage. If someone is looking for a way to target you, they can use that information and start to make you feel scared because of your child's safety, Mr. Lemieux said.
The speed of the digital world has far exceeded our capabilities to keep it processing, she added. If you have all this information out there, will you put the toothpaste back into the tube?
Mike Yeagley, a commercial data expert and its privacy risk, spent more than 15 years advising the US Department of Defense on how both allies and competitors take advantage of what he called digital exhaust, seemingly mundane details of social connections, service transactions and super data on the path in daily applications. At the highest level of our national security leader, regardless of the government, there must be a awareness of our data and what we can explore, he said.
The risk of someone at the cabinet level by using Venmo to pay for their personal coach? On the surface, it is not much like, according to the Yeagy Yeawly. However, now I know who is a gardener, or anyone, and suddenly I have expanded my ability to target by identifying those around you.
Yeagley added that our opponents are very sophisticated and eat meat in collecting their data, which means that it is just a little bit of light daytime light that is concerned about a sophisticated person. They will use that data. They will build from it.
According to Vemmo, its contact feature contact user allows users to download phone contacts to the application so they can find the people they know. When these Venmo accounts are set up all before 2020, the application will display the reminder that allows users to synchronize their phone contacts, automatically fill in their friends list with anyone in their address books that have used the platform. Venmo said this function was opposed more than two years ago. Today, synchronization contacts no longer create connections by default. To add someone to be friends, users must find them, send request and accept it.
However, according to Venmo's privacy policy, unless users actively change their privacy settings, their networks still display for anyone. That means that even if the user puts their accounts into private, their friends list still displayed unless they take one more step. When published, hide your connections require navigation Setting > Privacy > List of friends and choose Private.
Stephen Lurie contributed the report.