Thread by @EFF

At last, we've got the option to make our friends list private in @Venmo. Here's how to lock down your account, in 8 quick steps:

1: Tap the three lines in the top right corner, select Settings near the bottom. From the settings screen, select Privacy, then Friends List.

2: The settings will look like this by default. Change the privacy setting to Private. If you do not wish to appear in your friends’ own friends lists—after all, they may not set theirs to private—click the toggle off at the bottom. The final result should look like this.

3: Back on the Privacy settings page, make sure your Default privacy settings look like this: set your default privacy option for all future payments to Private.

4: Now select Past Transactions.

5: Select Change All to Private.

6: Confirm the change and click Change to Private.

7: Now go all the way back to the main settings page, and select Friends & social.

8: From here, you may see options to unlink your Venmo account from your Facebook account, Facebook friends list, and phone contacts. (Venmo may not give you all of these options depending on how you signed up.) Click all the toggles off if possible.

Although it shouldn't take a national security risk to force a company to focus on privacy, we're glad that Venmo has finally, at last, years later, provided friends list privacy options. eff.org/deeplinks/2021…