Politics
Biden’s Venmo account found ‘in MINUTES’ revealing family & White House officials’ profiles in ‘national security issue’
PRESIDENT Joe Biden’s Venmo account was reportedly unearthed by amateur sleuths within just ten minutes of starting their search – exposing his matrix of family, friends, and White House officials.
The vulnerability of Biden‘s extensive network of associates on the money-sharing app has sparked serious national security concerns.
President Biden’s contact list of family, friends, and senior White House officials was tracked down by cyber snoops[/caption]
Venmo has come under fire for it’s lax security measures that don’t allow friends lists to be privatised[/caption]
The saga began when an aide told the New York Times that the President occasionally sent his grandchildren money via Venmo, prompting an army of cyber snoops to try and track down his account.
Using the app’s built-in search tool and public friends feature, BuzzFeed News discovered a digital network of Biden’s buddies, family members, and senior White House officials – and could view all of their contacts too.
It took “less than ten minutes of looking,” the publication said, suggesting the President’s privacy has been left wide-open.
Although none of his transactions are public, it has saw the lax security measures of Venmo being called into question.
After reaching out to the White House for comment, all accounts connected to Biden’s were promptly removed.
The PayPal-owned app makes user’s transactions public by default, without providing a way to privatize transfers or friends lists, an issue raised by privacy campaigners since its arrival.
An aide told the NYT Biden, pictured with granddaughters Maisy and Finnegan, often sent his grandchildren money via the app[/caption]
A Venmo spokesperson told BuzzFeed News: “The safety and privacy of all Venmo users and their information is always a top priority, and we take this responsibility very seriously.
“Customers always have the ability to make their transactions private and determine their own privacy settings in the app. We’re consistently evolving and strengthening the privacy measures for all Venmo users to continue to provide a safe, secure place to send and spend money.”
But the mass exposure of the world’s most prominent political figure has only “magnified” the app’s issues, according to Gennie Gebhart, the acting activism director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
“Venmo’s privacy failures are already a big problem for everyday folks who use Venmo, and that’s been the case for years,” she told BuzzFeed News.
“All of those problems are magnified when we’re talking about a major public figure.”
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It is not the first time Venmo has exhibited a politician’s financial voyages to the world – as earlier this year, Matt Gaetz’s account was pounced on by pranksters.
The Republican’s page was tracked down in the wake of a number of allegations of sexual misconduct and was taunted with jibes by users offering to send him money for his “legal defense funds”.
The mobile payment service was established in 2009 and handled $159 billion in transactions in the first quarter of 2018.
The exposure has been described as a “national security issue” by Venmo[/caption]
