Venmo does well what its supposed to do let friends exchange money quickly and easily By default it posts those transactions in a social-media-style feed seeing who shared meals and drinks with whom and which emojis they favor can make an otherwise boring process mildly entertaining Newsletter Sign-up Theoretically Venmo lets users control who sees those posted items But Venmo has a spotty record on privacy and transparency In February the FTC announced a settlement with Venmos parent company PayPal Holdings Inc after finding Venmo misled consumers about the extent to which they could control the privacy of their transactions PayPal didnt pay a fine but agreed to make privacy-policy updates and to make sharing controls clearer Still Venmo has so far been unwilling to make privacy adjustments to some of the features many users have issues with Between the uproar this past summer over the apps public-by-default settings the enduring inability to make your friend list private and my feeling like a potential victim of a HIPAA violation I started wondering if I or anyone else should really be using the app Figuring that out took far more digging than users should reasonably have to deal with Heres what I learned and what you can do to protect yourself on Venmo 1 Venmo Transactions Are Public by Default Because Venmos default privacy setting is Public allowing all transactions to be seen by Venmo users you should go in and change it to Friends or better yet Private Because Venmos default privacy setting is Public allowing all transactions to be seen by Venmo users you should go in and change it to Friends or better yet Private Photo Venmo Venmos social feed is populated by transactions between users All these posts are publicly visible by default That means unless you change your settings anyone researchers included can see whom you paid To change that tap the three lines in the apps top left corner select settings and then hit Privacy You can choose Friends or Private which means a transaction will be visible only to you and the person you exchanged money with To change who can see your old posts go to Privacy Past Transactions 2 Contact Syncing Isnt Mandatory But Appears to Be When signing up for a Venmo account you have the option to skip Facebook friend syncing by tapping Not Now but there is no similar button for phone-contact syncing When signing up for a Venmo account you have the option to skip Facebook friend syncing by tapping Not Now but there is no similar button for phone-contact syncing Photo Venmo When users create a Venmo account theyre asked to sync their contacts You can go back or forward but theres no Skip or Not Now button If iPhone users select Next they see an iOS popup asking for contact access You might assume you have to click Allow but you can hit Decline and still create an account I dont normally sync contacts but when I signed up for Venmo in 2015 I enabled syncing To check your syncing status and switch it off go to Settings Friends Social 3 Your Friend List Is Always Visible Venmo friend lists are visible to other users and cant be made private Dont feel bad if you didnt know this The company didnt mention it in its privacy policy until September Venmos definition of friends is very loose as evidenced if you sync your contacts Unlike Facebook or LinkedIn which search your phone book and give you the option to add connections Venmo automatically adds to your friend list any saved contacts who also sync their phone books with the app If you have contact syncing turned on the app checks your phone book regularly every 28 days for iOS every week for Android Venmo adds any new contacts but wont remove phone contacts youve deleted Thats why some friends might look like strangers You cant hide your friend list regardless of your privacy settings This means that youre publishing your phone book It wont show everyone but it will include anyone in your phone who also synced contacts on Venmo That might include your boss or well your therapist Why cant we make this private Because Venmo was designed for sharing experiences with your friends in todays social world we try to make it as easy as possible to connect with other Venmo users a spokeswoman said 4 You Can Cull Your Friend List Additional ways to make your Venmo account more private Turn off Facebook Connect and contact syncing change the privacy settings of past transactions and unfriend anyone you dont want to share information with Additional ways to make your Venmo account more private Turn off Facebook Connect and contact syncing change the privacy settings of past transactions and unfriend anyone you dont want to share information with Photo Venmo What you can do is unfriend people but youll have to find your friend list first Clicking on your profile wont display it to you Instead tap the three lines and go to Search People Scroll past Top People to see them all Remove people by tapping their profiles and unchecking the friend icons Its important to review your friend list if youre sharing transactions with friends since that list may be longer than you realize If you never synced contacts the list could be virtually empty 5 Theres a Difference Between Facebook Connect and Facebook Contacts Go to Settings Friends Social and youll see Facebook Connect and Facebook Contacts The first creates a link between your two accounts I suggest disabling this Facebook recently had a security breach and like many apps when you agree to connect youre sharing information in both directions that may not be apparent No thanks The second simply adds Venmo-using Facebook friends to your account whove also synced Like contacts theyll stay in your Venmo friend list even after you unfriend them on Facebook 6 Bank Account Syncing Isnt Mandatory Either In a fairly recent addition to its privacy policy Venmo says If you connect your Venmo account to other financial accounts we may have access to your account balance and account and transactional information such as purchases and funds transfers Given that Venmo is a payment app it makes sense that the company would need to access some financial information to facilitate payments and confirm you have the funds to cover your transactions Venmos spokeswoman told me the company doesnt actually access users transaction information Its a small relief The company has privacy issues and has framed the social aspect of the app as core to its existence Meanwhile that FTC complaint alleged that Venmo misrepresented the extent to which consumers financial accounts were protected by bank-grade security systems The company said it made appropriate changes in response And lately Venmo has been grappling with a spike in fraud If youre really concerned you could unsync your bank account The app wont be as functional and youll have to use incoming funds to pay for things But if Venmo is just a pizza-and-beer slush fund for you that might be all you need Venmos hold on its users is pretty strong So strong that I dont feel like I can stop using it yet because no one has ever asked me to Square or Zelle them But Ill be happy to jump ship if and when a more privacy-minded app comes along For more WSJ Technology analysis reviews advice and headlines sign up for our weekly newsletter And dont forget to subscribe to our Instant Message podcast Write to Katherine Bindley at katiebindley wsjcom Appeared in the December 5 2018 print edition as Venmo Is Made for Sharing Maybe Too Much