The application of PayMemo reveals the life of its own users

Many researchers and online activists have highlighted what they believe is a serious flaw in the application of the famous online payment Venmo: by default, the application makes many available data and user transactions, allowing foreigners to closely examine, Which was discovered by Hang Do Thi Duc, who badyzed more than 200 million public payments in 2017. Its purpose was to highlight the risks of the privacy when using the payment application.

According to the researcher, everyone can track the purchase record for Venmo users and discover profile details, including drug prescriptions and eating habits, because the payment application It is not the protection of privacy. In general, to see the names of each user who has not changed the default settings, as well as the dates of each transaction and the message sent with the payments, and allowed him to explore the lives of users of the application.

These facts were clearly demonstrated by Public By Default, a research project detailing the transactions of five real people in 2017. The site was created by Hang Do Thi Duc, who uses the general data flow Finmo to show everything The researcher chose to hide the identities of these individuals because the purpose of the project is to highlight the privacy practices in the Venmo application.

The default status of transactions in the application is general, which means that it can be seen by anyone in any line and that users can change their situation privately. Christine Bannon, of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said, "If an application is unusual because it combines social media and financial transactions, social media is pretty general and financial transactions are somewhat private. Measuring consumer expectations of privacy. "

Many transactions may seem unimportant, but at the same time reveal a lot of information that may be important to other people or businesses, so that They show who the user's friends are, who they eat with abroad and how much they pay, and the people who change the transaction parameters become more and more private, noting that users can edit all their past transactions and make them private.

"If you are not a Venmo user, I hope you will look at this project and ask yourself questions about all other platforms. that you used. "Venmo explained that the security and privacy of its users are its priorities." Our users trust us in terms of money and information. and we take these privacy and liability laws very seriously, just like other social networks, users can choose what they want to share in the Vinnmo public stream.

The application of Venmu, which follows Paypal since 2013, is one of the most common smartphone applications for payments from one person to the other in the United States, usually used for transferring money Between people or buying an online application or store or transferring money from a credit balance to a bank account.