Joe Biden's Venmo account discovered after just 10 minutes of searching: Report

US President Joe Biden’s Venmo account was discovered after just ten minutes of searching, Buzzfeed News reported. The media outlet searched for Biden’s account after The New York Times published an article on White House conditions and working practices. Under the headline ‘Beneath Joe Biden’s Folksy Demeanor, a Short Fuse and an Obsession With Details,’ the Times reported lengthy policy debates, angry outbursts at advisers and officials and plenty of time with grandchildren. 

The article stated that one adviser said that the US President had sent the grandchildren money using Venmo. With that information in hand, BuzzFeed then searched for Biden’s account and within minutes they were able to find accounts linked to the First family. It is worth noting that Venmo, which is owned by PayPal, enables simple payments between contacts and transactions are public by default.  

Following the report, accounts linked to Biden and First Lady Dr Jill Biden were removed. The media outlet said that they discovered Biden’s account using only a combination of the app’s built-in search tool and public friends feature. In the process, it said that it found nearly a dozen Biden family members and mapped out a social web that encompasses not only the first family but a wide network of people around the,m, including president’s children, grandchildren, senior White House officials and all of the contacts on Venmo. 

‘Safety, security is top priority' 

While speaking to the media outlet, a Venmo spokesperson said that the safety and privacy of all Venmo users and their information is always a top priority and they take this responsibility very seriously. The spokesman added that customers always have the ability to make their transactions private and determine their own privacy settings in the app. He said that Venmo is consistently evolving and strengthening the privacy measures for all users in a bid to continue to provide a safe, secure place to send and spend money. 

Meanwhile, Venmo has been in the political spotlight recently after Joel Greenberg, an ally of Republican congressman Matt Gaetz, reportedly made more than 150 payments via the app to dozens of women, as well as a 17-year-old girl. Back in 2018, The Guardian also reported that Christine Bannan, then of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said that Venmo is an “unusual app” because it combines social media with financial transactions. “One of those is usually fairly public and one is usually very private, so it’s hard to gauge consumer expectations of privacy,” Bannan said. 

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