Hey Kentuckians! Venmo Shares Way More About You Than You Probably Realize

I was talking to my mom over the weekend and we were randomly talking about candles. I made the comment that candles are the last thing I need at my house right now. I explained to her that my husband and I had just bought a bunch of them (hundreds of dollars worth) during Bath & Body Works' annual December candle sale. She laughed and said, "Oh yeah! I saw on Venmo that you paid him for candles."

I said, "Whoa! What?"

She said, "Yeah, I can see what my friends are paying people for on Venmo."

Uh, I didn't know this.  I was flabbergasted.  And, I suppose one could argue that I should have known it.  After all, Venmo is a social media app that friends and family routinely use to transfer money from one to another. However, I just assumed that, because the transactions are financial, that they would also be private.

NEGATIVE! Unless you change your settings from public to private, everyone can be all up in your business. They can see who you paid, when and for what. The only thing they can't see is the dollar amount you forked over.

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Okay, here's the deal. I'm not harboring any transactional secrets. However, because I have a completely warped and rather "adult" sense of humor, I routinely write very inappropriate things in the memo section (where you can indicate what the payment is for).

Here's a relatively mild example that could be very incriminating if it were actually true. I wrote in the memo to my friend J.T., who simply strung my tennis racquets for me, that I was paying him for "Those crack rocks you sold me at Moreland Park."  Friends have paid me and marked the payment as an "Only Fans Tip."  When my mom picked up toilet paper for me at Sam's Club, I wrote in the memo- "Stuff to wipe my ass with."

I'll admit. I never thought a thing about writing stuff like that in the memos because I didn't think anyone could see it. But, guess what?? EVERYONE COULD!!!

So, log into your Venmo account and do this!

Click the ME tab in the bottom right-hand corner.

Click the icon in the upper right-hand corner.

Scroll down to the PRIVACY tab.

You'll see this!

Click on Learn More About Privacy and it will explain each option for you.

First, there's Public.

The next option is Friends.

And, finally, you will see Private.

People, if you don't want folks knowing who you're paying money to and for what, here's how you can fix it!  Trust me when I tell you, I have already done it.