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People using Venmo to spy on cheating spouses

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11–20 of 209 posts

Re: People using Venmo to spy on cheating spouses

#11
It takes a few clicks to make everything private. Either way, I deleted my account last week because Venmo is killing their website and forcing Android/iOS only.

I'm not even sure why Venmo caught on, it is the worst option out of all the possible payment systems (fb, Google pay, sq cash...) since they don't deposit cash received into your bank account and rather hold it interest free.

Re: People using Venmo to spy on cheating spouses

#12
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

In Facebook’s early days, everything you put on the site was shared with your friends. So it was not “private, personal, info” but rather the opposite — information that users wanted to publicize widely. I have never put anything on Facebook that I care whether Mark Zuckerberg reads or not. It would be weird and creepy, for sure, if he was looking at pictures of my baby, but I willingly shared those with over a thous…

> So it was not “private, personal, info” but rather the opposite — information that users wanted to publicize widely

SSN is not private, personal info?

I've never met anyone online or offline who wanted to publicize their SSN widely. Oh wait... that LifeLock dude.... https://www.wired.com/2010/05/lifelock-identity-theft/

Re: People using Venmo to spy on cheating spouses

#13

Nothing in the article about "cheating spouses."

> But Venmo users have found it’s also an extremely effective tool for keeping tabs on friends, partners and exes, researching crushes, and in some cases, uncovering infidelity.

That line and the article title are unsubstantiated. The three interviews are with two young college students and one 28 year-old guy whose ex-BF has a coke problem. Unless I missed it, there's nothing in the article about a cheating spouse.

Re: People using Venmo to spy on cheating spouses

#14
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

In Facebook’s early days, everything you put on the site was shared with your friends. So it was not “private, personal, info” but rather the opposite — information that users wanted to publicize widely. I have never put anything on Facebook that I care whether Mark Zuckerberg reads or not. It would be weird and creepy, for sure, if he was looking at pictures of my baby, but I willingly shared those with over a thous…

This isn't meant to call you out specifically but I've seen others echo similar sentiments of "I only put what I want on FB so it's no big deal privacy wise".

What's troubling about FB is the _other_ implicit information they (and the other large social apps) passively collect about you. Unless you're using a particularly effective ad/privacy blocker you're also sharing all the data about every site you've visited that has a FB like button. Also, separate from you and your data, FB has a tremendous graph of all the contacts, etc who have you as a contact.

Collectively, this gives them a much greater reach and ability to make inferences than just what you directly share.

Re: People using Venmo to spy on cheating spouses

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

This is being downvoted likely because "Mark was a kid", but in many ways he was right. A priori, there is no reason to trust any website or company on the internet. The fact that people trust Google with intimate search queries, or trust Facebook with their personal photos and info, or trust Apple with their messages, or trust a website like Amazon in shopping is really amazing. They are all private companies that a…

> downvoted likely because "Mark was a kid"

well, it's often used as a lazy sort of character assassination.

it's also (perhaps ironically) a good example of why "right to be forgotten" can make sense.

Re: People using Venmo to spy on cheating spouses

#16
post #2

It boggles my mind that anyone would want to stream their payment history publicly.

Especially when “the wrong word could get you in trouble”: https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_571f8057e4b01a5ebde34b97/...

It is so ridiculous that the comment for a payment would be used against someone. Writing jokes in the 'for' line on a check is a time honored tradition when paying your friends money. I don't want to live in a world where I am not allowed to make jokes because it might get me a visit from the FBI.

Re: People using Venmo to spy on cheating spouses

#18
post #2

It boggles my mind that anyone would want to stream their payment history publicly.

Indeed.

My guess behind the attraction to such a service would be that a public spending feed could make one more conservative for fear of judgement.

Although if its solely for bill-splitting I have no idea why it is public. Surely people's spending history has some value en-masse, why make that public?

Re: People using Venmo to spy on cheating spouses

#19
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Facebook’s early days, everything you put on the site was shared with your friends. So it was not “private, personal, info” but rather the opposite — information that users wanted to publicize widely. I have never put anything on Facebook that I care whether Mark Zuckerberg reads or not. It would be weird and creepy, for sure, if he was looking at pictures of my baby, but I willingly shared those with over a thous…

> So it was not “private, personal, info” but rather the opposite — information that users wanted to publicize widely SSN is not private, personal info? I've never met anyone online or offline who wanted to publicize their SSN widely. Oh wait... that LifeLock dude.... https://www.wired.com/2010/05/lifelock-identity-theft/

SNS, not SSNs.

SNS almost certainly refers to either:

1) Student numbers

2) Screen names (like for AIM)

Re: People using Venmo to spy on cheating spouses

#20
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Facebook’s early days, everything you put on the site was shared with your friends. So it was not “private, personal, info” but rather the opposite — information that users wanted to publicize widely. I have never put anything on Facebook that I care whether Mark Zuckerberg reads or not. It would be weird and creepy, for sure, if he was looking at pictures of my baby, but I willingly shared those with over a thous…

> So it was not “private, personal, info” but rather the opposite — information that users wanted to publicize widely SSN is not private, personal info? I've never met anyone online or offline who wanted to publicize their SSN widely. Oh wait... that LifeLock dude.... https://www.wired.com/2010/05/lifelock-identity-theft/

SNS is meant to mean SN's, or "screennames". This (now-outdated) term refers to messenger accounts (AIM/ICQ) in the pre-Facebook world.
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