Venmo is rolling out more privacy features.
Angela Lang/CNETFollowing an incident earlier this month in which BuzzFeed reporters found President Joe Biden's Venmo account with ease, Venmo says it'll roll out a feature allowing people to make their friends lists private or decide who can see them, BuzzFeed said Friday.
A Venmo representative confirmed the report to CNET, saying: "We're consistently evolving and strengthening the Venmo platform for all of our customers. As part of these ongoing efforts, we have added in-app controls providing customers an option to select a public, friends-only, or private setting for their friends list."
Tipster Jane Manchun Wong also tweeted about the upcoming feature Friday, writing: "Venmo is working on friends list privacy settings after Joe Biden's Venmo friend list was uncovered. Users will also be able to choose whether to appear in other users' friends lists."
Venmo is working on friends list privacy settings
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) May 28, 2021
after Joe Biden’s Venmo friend list was uncovered:https://t.co/3pDhM1CeHs
users will also be able to choose whether to appear in other users’ friends lists pic.twitter.com/aFruMZqeZ4
She added, "As of now, Venmo's Friends List Privacy is on 'Public' by default."
Privacy advocates sounded the alarm after Biden's network of contacts on Venmo, including his kids, grandkids and senior White House officials, was easily discovered. Despite his transactions being set to private, friends lists on all Venmo accounts were publicly visible. Experts warned this would create access to a wider network of connections to the president, and could lead to a security risk.