A couple of weeks ago, I got an invitation from a friend to signup for a service called [Venmo][ http://venmo.com/]. This service is, so far, only available to users by invitation from another user.
A couple of weeks ago, I got an invitation from a friend to signup for a service called Venmo. This service is, so far, only available to users by invitation from another user.
Venmo is an interesting idea; As a registered and verified user, you can pay another Venmo user by simply texting a message to Venmo such as “Pay 49.53 to jenny for November utilities” or, if the recipient is not a Venmo user, you can specify their cell phone number: “Pay 10 to 2159088942 for dinner last night”.
You can transfer funds to Venmo by registering a bank account and then authorizing them to make withdrawals or you can have payments made by registering a credit card.
Venmo also supports charging other Venmo users thus to square up your shared expenses you might text “Charge susieQ 30.25 for Jan utility bill” to Venmo. To extract funds from Venmo you need to register a bank account with Venmo.
I started to dig into Venmo and this was where I did something really dumb: I clicked on a link that allowed Venmo to invite everyone in my address book. I would, at this point, like to apologize to the hundreds of people who received invites sent on my behalf … many of you, quite wisely, wrote to me asking if the invite really was from me.
Then one friend wrote to me to relate that during registration he accidentally clicked on the User Agreement link and this is what he found:
1.9 – Calls to You. / By Providing Venmo a telephone number (including a wireless/cellular telephone), you consent to receiving autodialed and prerecorded message calls from Venmo at that number.
2.3 – Identity Authentication. / You authorize Venmo directly or through third parties, to make any inquiries we consider necessary to validate your identity. This may include asking you for further information, requiring you to take steps to confirm ownership of your e-mail address, wireless/cellular telephone number or financial instruments, ordering a credit report and verifying your information against third-party databases or through other sources.
5.2 – Assignment of Interest to Venmo. / … In consideration for your use of the Service, you irrevocably transfer and assign to Venmo any ownership right that you may have in any interest that may accrue on funds held in Pooled Accounts.
While I understand the third point, it’s part of the way Venmo makes money, I think that burying terms 1.9 and 2.3 in the User Agreement unacceptable. I usually read the fine print when I signup for anything, but, I suspect, in common with most people, that’s usually not always.
Given the invasive nature of such terms, they really need to be made clear and obvious when signing up because, I believe, most people would think twice when faced with such a proposition. By not making these terms visible it looks like the company is doing something underhanded even when they aren’t.
Let’s face it: The whole issue of privacy and user rights can’t be ignored any longer. You have to be clear about what kind of relationship your service will have with the user and be certain the user understands the implications.
It will be interesting to see how well Venmo does and if it is forced to change its user agreement or spell out the terms at sign up.
