We become so focused on using the technology that we miss the clues to protect our privacy.
Recently, I used Venmo and noticed relatives hadn’t made their payment activity private. It’s essentially telling the world that Cousin Eddie sent you hush money for the underwear you bought him because that was far too personal than the giant bags of dog food and Christmas gifts for your kids.
Venmo like Zelle offer peer-to-peer social transactions, a convenient and quick way to exchange money for gifts, food, clothes. It’s a social way to send money or split costs with your kids, parents, friends and relatives.
The caveat, they aren’t the only ones who can see your transactions. Venmo defaults all transactions and friend lists to Public. Because the app operates like a social network, millions of users leave their profiles and payment histories visible to anyone on the platform without realizing it.
Scammers watch these public feeds looking for clues to their next hit.
Zelle transactions are private in the sense that they are strictly direct transfers between bank accounts and do not feature public social feeds like Venmo. Sensitive bank details are never shared with the recipient. They only see your name and the phone number or email you used to register.
They aren’t, however, private as in anonymous. Zelle, your bank and the receiving bank all log the names, phones numbers, email addresses and transactions sharing this data internally. This website is anonymous. It isn’t set-up to require logins, emails for article distribution or track IP addresses to people or locations.
On Instagram, the slide to Private keeps anyone with an Instagram account viewing all the people you follow and your followers, especially if you don’t have hundreds or thousands of followers or you have never even made a single post. LinkedIn notifies you when someone views your profile and the only connections you can view are the mutual ones you share unless you are connected to them.
I like to use WordHippo because it generates synonyms beyond the ordinary. When I was searching on privacy, I noticed the incongruity glaring back at me on my screen and realized I was an oxymoron in what I captured.
At the time of 6:54 am that is, I actually had bars now that we switched wireless carriers even though the WiFi signal was prominent with a full battery charge. The black slanting arrow next to the time signified that a Focus mode was on which I still haven’t fully figured out. However, the glaring upward blue arrow indicated that my privacy was compromised with an app, website or background service actively using my Location Services (GPS).
I’m notorious for leaving apps and websites open on my phone. Beyond the social media apps which I don’t have loaded there, the worst offenders are actually your banking apps. Even though you are logged out, they track your location if you don’t fully close the app. The same is true for weather apps, home sale apps and these aren’t even listed on the top 20.
Our privacy will continue to be infringed upon. Paying more attention to the clues will keep us one step ahead of the scammers.
CBS news anchor nearly loses life savings in LA scam