Venmo fancies itself as a social network rather than a payment service and as such makes your transactions public by default. You have to change a setting if you’d rather keep your Venmo comings and goings private, otherwise Venmo users are able see when you make or receive a payment.
Thankfully, it’s easy to set your Venmo activity to private, either globally or per transaction. Let’s quickly review your options.
Set a Venmo transaction private
When you are sending a payment, you can tap the button in the lower-right area just above the big, blue Pay button to choose one of three options:
- Public: Visible to everyone on the internet
- Friends: Visible to sender, recipient and their Venmo friends
- Private: Visible to sender and recipient only
Again, by default, Public is the selection.
Set all Venmo transactions private
To set your Venmo activity private, tap the hamburger button in the top left, tap Settings and then tap Privacy. Under Default Privacy Setting, tap Private and continue to use Venmo as you have from the start — as a payment service rather than social network.
