JOE Biden was exposed to a potential security risk after his secret Venmo account was uncovered in just TEN minutes, it has emerged. Buzzfeed News searched for Biden’s account on Friday after it was reported that the president had sent his grandkids money on the payments app. The media outlet searched for President Biden’s account […]
JOE Biden was exposed to a potential security risk after his secret Venmo account was uncovered in just TEN minutes, it has emerged.
Buzzfeed News searched for Biden’s account on Friday after it was reported that the president had sent his grandkids money on the payments app.
The media outlet searched for President Biden’s account using a combination of the app’s search tool and the public friends feature.
During the search, Buzzfeed News found nearly a dozen members of the Biden family.
The social web not only included the First Family but a wide network of people surrounding them, some of whom were White House officials.
Biden’s transactions were not public, however, and Buzzfeed News did not identify account usernames due to them being national security concerns.
Biden’s public friend list could be dangerous in the hands of trolls, stalkers, or even spies.
People who use Venmo often import their phone contacts or Facebook friends list and the app makes it impossible for users to hide their list of friends.
According to Buzzfeed News, although the President had fewer than 10 friends on the app, he was easily verifiable given the people he was connected to.
In turn, his account was linked to staffers, other family members, and senior White House officials.
After Buzzfeed News reached out to the White House, all of the President’s friends on Venmo were removed and now both his account and the First Lady’s account have been removed.
Gennie Gebhart, the activism director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights organization, told Buzzfeed News: “Venmo’s privacy failures are already a big problem for everyday folks who use Venmo, and that’s been the case for years.
“All of those problems are magnified when we’re talking about a major public figure.”
“For one of the most heavily guarded individuals in the world, a publicly available Venmo account and friend list is a massive security hole.”
Even a small friend list is still enough to paint a pretty reliable picture of someone’s habits, routines, and social circles,” Gebhart added.
A spokesperson for the White House did not have an immediate comment for Buzzfeed News but a Venmo spokesperson said: “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.”
