The Shit List / Fintech / Venmo · full spec sheet · jump to the Wall ↓
Severity
39 / 100▼3
MODERATEremissionpeak 49ranked #30 of 42people’s rank #25 · preview
Case 030 · Fintech · Admitted 2018
The Enshittification of Venmo
The Enshittification of VenmoVenmo, the PayPal-owned peer-to-peer payments app, settled FTC charges in 2018 that it misled users about privacy settings and the availability of transferred funds. Its public-by-default transaction feed and friends lists produced repeated privacy incidents, including a researcher's analysis of 200 million public transactions, the discovery of President Joe Biden's account in 2021, and the exposure of national security adviser Mike Waltz's contacts in 2025. Alongside these incidents, the company raised instant-transfer fees several times and expanded monetization through cryptocurrency trading and other financial products.
First symptom
Feb 2018
Symptoms on file
7
Categories
3
Prognosis
Moderate
5 privacy · 1 pricing · 1 features
Alternatives
The Paper Trail
| Date | Category | Symptom · rating · source |
|---|---|---|
| 2018-02 | privacy | PayPal settles FTC charges over Venmo privacy and funds disclosuresThe FTC charged that Venmo misled users about their ability to control the privacy of transactions, which were publicized by default, and failed to disclose that funds shown as credited could later be frozen or removed. The settlement required clear disclosures and biennial third-party privacy assessments for ten years.↳ Federal Trade Commission |
| 2018-07 | privacy | Researcher analyzes 200 million public Venmo transactionsBerlin-based researcher Hang Do Thi Duc published 'Public by Default,' an analysis of more than 200 million Venmo transactions from 2017 accessed through the company's open API, reconstructing users' purchase histories, habits, and relationships. The project highlighted that Venmo transactions were public unless users changed the default setting.↳ CNN |
| 2021-04 | features | Venmo adds cryptocurrency buying and sellingVenmo launched in-app buying, holding, and selling of bitcoin, ether, litecoin, and bitcoin cash, with purchases shareable to the app's social feed. The feature extended PayPal's monetization of Venmo alongside its credit card and merchant checkout products.↳ CNBC |
| 2021-05 | privacy | President Biden's Venmo account found in under 10 minutesBuzzFeed News located President Joe Biden's Venmo account in less than ten minutes using the app's search tool and public friends lists, mapping a network of family members and senior White House officials. At the time, Venmo offered no way to make an account's friends list private.↳ BuzzFeed News |
| 2021-07 | privacy | Global public feed removed; friends lists remain public by defaultVenmo removed its global feed of strangers' transactions in a redesign and added settings to make friends lists private. Transactions and friends lists nonetheless remained visible by default unless users opted out.↳ TechCrunch |
| 2022-04 | pricing | Instant transfer fees raised to 1.75 percentPayPal raised Venmo's instant transfer fee from 1.5 percent to 1.75 percent per transaction effective May 23, 2022, and lifted the fee cap from $15 to $25. It was the latest in a series of increases since instant transfers debuted at a flat 25 cents.↳ TechCrunch |
| 2025-03 | privacy | National security adviser's public Venmo contacts exposedWired reported that national security adviser Mike Waltz's Venmo friends list, with 328 contacts including journalists, lobbyists, military officers, and the White House chief of staff, was publicly visible until reporters inquired. The incident renewed criticism that Venmo's social design defaults expose sensitive personal networks.↳ The Irish Times |
The Wall
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<a href="https://enshittification.xyz/venmo"><img src="https://enshittification.xyz/badge/venmo.svg" alt="Venmo on the Enshittification Index"></a>The Enshittification Index · 42 case files · no source, no entry · updated Jun 2026
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