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Bot Tweeted Names And Photos Of Venmo Users Who Bought Drugs (mercurynews.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the for-the-lolz dept.

Since Venmo's transactions are "public" by default and broadcast on Venmo's API, a Python programmer decided to publicize a few of them, reports the Mercury News: The creator of the bot named "Who's buying drugs on Venmo" under the Twitter handle @venmodrugs says he wanted users to consider their privacy settings before using Venmo. The bot finds Venmo transactions that include words such as heroin, marijuana, cocaine, meth, speed or emojis that denote drugs and tweets the transaction with the names of the sender and receiver and the sender's photo, if there is one... "I wanted to demonstrate how much data Venmo was making publicly available with their open API and their public by default settings and encourage people to consider their privacy settings," Joel Guerra, the creator of the bot, told Motherboard, a technology news outlet run by Vice.
He shut the bot after 24 hours, according to a Medium essay titled "Why I blasted your 'drug' deals on Twitter": I chose drugs, sex and alcohol keywords as the trigger for the bot because because they were funny and shocking. I removed the last names of users because I didn't want to actually contribute to the problem of lack of privacy... I braced myself for backlash but the response was overwhelmingly positive. People understood my point and I had sparked a lot of discussion about online privacy and the need for users to do a better job of understanding the terms of software they were using -- and a lot of discussion about how companies need to do a better job of informing customers how their data was being used...

After about 24 hours of tweeting everyone's drug laden Venmo transactions I shut down the bot (Python script!!) and deleted all the tweets. I had successfully made my point and gotten more attention than I had imagined possible. Thousands of people were reading tweets and articles about the bot and discussing data privacy. I saw no further value in tweeting out anyone's personal transactions anymore. However, all I ever did was format the data and automate a Twitter account -- the data is still readily available.
His closure of the bot drew some interesting reactions on Twitter.

"booooooooo. I was so entertained by this."

"I remember I had a dealer take my phone and set venmo to private lol."

"we're looking to add a Python developer to our team and I think you'd be a good fit."

5 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. I must be old by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I must be old because I had never heard of venmo until now. Fucking mellinials.

  2. Black Market and Taboo Industries. by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    In short if there is demand for a product there will be a market for it. You can try to setup social rules or actual laws, but just as long people want it, it will be available.

    However if such a product/service is Black Market, or just Taboo for that culture, there rarely is a formal entry to entry. It isn't like a Drug dealer will need at least 2 years of business school, or a Sex Worker will need an art degree, or places that offer formal training... So the reason why a lot of these people get caught is because they don't know what they are doing. So Venmo is an easy way to send them money, they will take it. Not realizing how insecure it is. Because they didn't think on how insecure it is, and neither does the consumer (even for more normal purchases) realize how publicly displaying the purchases is risky.

    Now Black Market and even Taboo markets have the biggest problem of not being able to fight against bad service or products. You as a consumer isn't willing to sue Venmo because it posted your purchases of an Illegal or Embarrassing item, because all it will do is bring more attention to themselves. Sure some people are willing to take the Embarrassment of a Taboo item, just to get their point across, but for Black Market stuff your risking punishment as well, for getting ripped off.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    1. Re:Black Market and Taboo Industries. by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The largest Black Market in New York State isn't drugs, but unpasteurized milk. You can drive across Upstate NY and find signs saying Raw Milk this way. I say this because calling people dealing in the Black Market Criminals is a harsh statement. It is the sale of anything that isn't allowed to be sold in the area.

      A low bar of entry makes it easier for stupid people to get into it. However they are also a lot of extremely smart people in the Black Market too, which is why the "War on Drugs" is so hard to fight, Because you are fighting Market Demand and Creative individuals who work all the time to work around the system, yet make themselves known to actually sell to people.

      Black Market is a very inconsistent area. You can get top notch quality or crap that will kill you. Because for that Raw Milk the producer can make sure the Cows are in wonderful living conditions, clean happy and healthy. Or sleeping in their own waste, eating garbage food.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    2. Re:Black Market and Taboo Industries. by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 3, Insightful

      People selling things that aren’t allowed to be sold are criminals.

      I would suggest to you that your view is simplistic to say the least, and doesn't reflect reality. There are plenty of things that are now illegal, that once were legal. And things that were once illegal that are currently legal, and a few things that were once legal, then made illegal, but are legal again. Alcohol is a great example.

      Drinking alcohol doesn't make one a criminal either before, during or after prohibition. Just because there is a law doesn't mean it is a good one. And thus, we have the ability to judge not only the facts of a case, but also the law (jury nullification). This is the last refuge of liberty.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    3. Re:Black Market and Taboo Industries. by BenFranske · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually that's exactly what criminal means. We can (and should) absolutely have a debate about what things should be unlawful today and be continually updating laws. Make no mistake though that if something is unlawful when you do it you are a criminal. That's the definition of criminal.

      Yes, that means that everyone who speeds is a criminal. Yes, that means that people who drank (well actually only people who produced, sold, or transported intoxicating liquors) during the prohibition era were criminals. There are many examples of things which should not be, or are not anymore, unlawful but it is clearly the case that people who did those things while they were unlawful are in fact criminals. Yes, almost everyone is a criminal because we have a lot of laws on the books.